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Living Standards in Retirement: Accepted International Comparisons are Misleading

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  • Joachim R. Frick
  • Bruce Headey

Abstract

Accepted international assessments of living standards in retirement rely on comparing social pension incomes. These assessments conclude that European countries with contributory pension schemes provide retirees with higher living standards than liberal Anglo-American regimes in which many citizens rely on flat rate old age pensions. Comparisons based solely on pension incomes are potentially misleading because the living standards of retirees depend on their total economic resources, particularly their wealth. In this paper we make use of the wealth data in the German (SOEP) and Australian (HILDA) panels. Our revised ‘present value’ estimates of wealth suggest that Australian and German retirees have approximately the same living standards (mean and median), with much the same distribution (Gini).

Suggested Citation

  • Joachim R. Frick & Bruce Headey, 2009. "Living Standards in Retirement: Accepted International Comparisons are Misleading," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 129(2), pages 309-319.
    • Handle: RePEc:aeq:aeqsjb:v129_y2009_i1_q1_p309-319
    DOI: 10.3790/schm.129.2.309
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    Cited by:

    1. Francesco Figari & Alari Paulus, 2015. "The Distributional Effects of Taxes and Transfers Under Alternative Income Concepts," Public Finance Review, , vol. 43(3), pages 347-372, May.
    2. Kilgarriff, Paul & Charlton, Martin & Foley, Ronan & O'Donoghue, Cathal, 2019. "The impact of housing consumption value on the spatial distribution of welfare," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 118-130.
    3. Timm Bönke & Markus M. Grabka & Carsten Schröder & Edward N. Wolff & Lennard Zyska, 2019. "The Joint Distribution of Net Worth and Pension Wealth in Germany," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 834-871, December.
    4. Sierminska, Eva & Wroński, Marcin, 2022. "Inequality and Public Pension Entitlements," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1212, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Andreas Peichl & Nico Pestel, 2013. "Multidimensional affluence: theory and applications to Germany and the US," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(32), pages 4591-4601, November.
    6. Anika Rasner & Joachim R. Frick & Markus M. Grabka, 2013. "Statistical Matching of Administrative and Survey Data," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 42(2), pages 192-224, May.
    7. Peichl, Andreas & Pestel, Nico, 2010. "Multidimensional Measurement of Richness: Theory and an Application to Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 4825, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Bönke, Timm & Grabka, Markus M. & Schröder, Carsten & Wolff, Edward N., 2020. "A Head-to-Head Comparison of Augmented Wealth in Germany and the United States," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 122(3), pages 1140-1180.
    9. Wroński, Marcin, 2023. "The impact of social security wealth on the distribution of wealth in the European Union," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    10. Mathä, Thomas Y. & Porpiglia, Alessandro & Sierminska, Eva, 2011. "The immigrant/native wealth gap in Germany, Italy and Luxembourg," Working Paper Series 1302, European Central Bank.
    11. Rasner, Anika & Frick, Joachim R. & Grabka, Markus M., 2013. "Statistical Matching of Administrative and Survey Data: An Application to Wealth Inequality Analysis," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 42(2), pages 192-224.
    12. Dean R. Lillard, 2021. "Cross‐National Research: Realised and Potential Contributions," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(4), pages 542-553, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions

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