IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/germec/v11y2010i4p487-510.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Incomes and Inequality in the Long Run: The Case of German Elderly

Author

Listed:
  • Timm Bönke
  • Carsten Schröder
  • Katharina Schulte

Abstract

. We use German Sample Survey income data to examine the income distribution for elderly individuals during the period from 1978 to 2003. The elderly population, defined as people of age 55 and older, is decomposed by people resident in the Old and New Federal States. Further, we distinguish between persons receiving old‐age pensions and persons who do not. Inequality estimates are decomposed by income components, and the bootstrap method is used to test for statistical significance of results.

Suggested Citation

  • Timm Bönke & Carsten Schröder & Katharina Schulte, 2010. "Incomes and Inequality in the Long Run: The Case of German Elderly," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 11(4), pages 487-510, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:11:y:2010:i:4:p:487-510
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0475.2009.00496.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0475.2009.00496.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0475.2009.00496.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniela Mantovani & Fotis Papadopoulos & Holly Sutherland & Panos Tsakloglou, 2006. "Pension Incomes in the European Union: Policy Reform Strategies in Comparative Perspective," Research in Labor Economics, in: Micro-Simulation in Action, pages 27-71, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Barbara Berkel & Axel Börsch-Supan, 2004. "Pension Reform in Germany: The Impact on Retirement Decisions," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 60(3), pages 393-421, September.
    3. Sikandar Siddiqui, 1997. "The pension incentive to retire: Empirical evidence for West Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 10(4), pages 463-486.
    4. Buch Claudia M. & Pierdzioch Christian & Doepke Joerg, 2004. "Business Cycle Volatility in Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 5(4), pages 451-479, December.
    5. Hallberg, Daniel, 2006. "Cross-national differences in income poverty among Europe´s 50+," Working Paper Series 2006:14, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    6. Paul Johnson & Gary Stears, 1996. "Pensioner income inequality," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 69-93, November.
    7. Schnabel, Reinhold, 1999. "The Golden Years of Social Security -- Life-cycle Income, Pensions and Savings in Germany," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 99-40, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    8. Hirte Georg, 2002. "Welfare and Macroeconomic Effects of the German Pension Acts of 1992 and 1999: A Dynamic CGE Study," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 81-106, February.
    9. Timothy Smeeding, 1990. "The Meaning of Retirement: Cross-national Patterns and Trends," LIS Working papers 51, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    10. Agar Brugiavini & Tullio Jappelli & Guglielmo Weber, 2002. "The Survey on Health, Aging and Wealth," CSEF Working Papers 86, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    11. Mills, Jeffrey A & Zandvakili, Sourushe, 1997. "Statistical Inference via Bootstrapping for Measures of Inequality," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(2), pages 133-150, March-Apr.
    12. Deaton, Angus & Paxson, Christina, 1994. "Intertemporal Choice and Inequality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(3), pages 437-467, June.
    13. George Athanasopoulos & Farshid Vahid, 2003. "Statistical Inference and Changes in Income Inequality in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 79(247), pages 412-424, December.
    14. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Reil-Held, Anette & Schnabel, Reinhold, 1998. "Pension Provision in Germany," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 98-07, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    15. Podder, Nripesh & Chatterjee, Srikanta, 2002. "Sharing the national cake in post reform New Zealand: income inequality trends in terms of income sources," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 1-27, October.
    16. Giacomo Corneo & Matthias Keese & Carsten Schröder, 2009. "The Riester Scheme and Private Savings: An Empirical Analysis based on the German SOEP," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 129(2), pages 321-332.
    17. Biewen, Martin, 2002. "Bootstrap inference for inequality, mobility and poverty measurement," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 317-342, June.
    18. Lerman, Robert I & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1985. "Income Inequality Effects by Income," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(1), pages 151-156, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christine Mayrhuber & Rainer Eppel & Thomas Horvath & Helmut Mahringer, 2020. "Destandardisierung von Erwerbsverläufen und Rückwirkungen auf die Alterssicherung," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 66001.
    2. Hanewald, Katja & Jia, Ruo & Liu, Zining, 2021. "Why is inequality higher among the old? Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Timm Bönke & Carsten Schröder & Clive Werdt, 2013. "Compiling a harmonized database from Germany’s 1978 to 2003 sample surveys of income and expenditure," AStA Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistisches Archiv, Springer;Deutsche Statistische Gesellschaft - German Statistical Society, vol. 7(3), pages 135-168, December.
    4. Schröder, Carsten & Bönke, Timm, 2012. "Country inequality rankings and conversion schemes," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-43.
    5. Mauro Mussini, 2017. "Decomposing Changes in Inequality and Welfare Between EU Regions: The Roles of Population Change, Re-Ranking and Income Growth," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 455-478, January.
    6. Bönke Timm & Schröder Carsten, 2011. "Poverty in Germany – Statistical Inference and Decomposition," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 231(2), pages 178-209, April.
    7. Bönke, Timm & Kemptner, Daniel & Lüthen, Holger, 2018. "Effectiveness of early retirement disincentives: Individual welfare, distributional and fiscal implications," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 25-37.
    8. Moritz Hess, 2018. "Retirement Expectations in Germany—Towards Rising Social Inequality?," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-11, July.
    9. Timm Bönke & Carsten Schröder & Katharina Schulte, 2011. "Zur Entwicklung der Einkommensverteilung unter älteren Menschen in Deutschland seit der Wiedervereinigung," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 80(2), pages 81-99.
    10. Christian Dudel & Julian Schmied, 2023. "Pension benchmarks: empirical estimation and results for the United States and Germany," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 171-188, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:bla:germec:v:11:y:2010:i::p:487-510 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Timm Bönke & Carsten Schröder & Katharina Schulte, 2011. "Zur Entwicklung der Einkommensverteilung unter älteren Menschen in Deutschland seit der Wiedervereinigung," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 80(2), pages 81-99.
    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. Ana Suárez Álvarez & Ana Jesús López Menéndez, 2018. "Assessing Changes Over Time in Inequality of Opportunity: The Case of Spain," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 989-1014, October.
    5. Bönke Timm & Schröder Carsten, 2011. "Poverty in Germany – Statistical Inference and Decomposition," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 231(2), pages 178-209, April.
    6. Schröder, Carsten & Bönke, Timm, 2012. "Country inequality rankings and conversion schemes," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-43.
    7. Kemptner, Daniel & Timm, Boenke & Holger, Luethen, 2014. "The introduction of disincentives for early retirement and its effect on labor market participation," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100446, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    8. Stéphane Mussard & Pi Alperin María Noel, 2006. "Measuring Significance of Inequalities with Heterogeneous Groups and Income Sources," Cahiers de recherche 06-13, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    9. Börsch-Supan, A. & Härtl, K. & Leite, D.N., 2016. "Social Security and Public Insurance," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 781-863, Elsevier.
    10. Carsten Schröder, 2011. "Cowell, F.: Measuring Inequality. London School of Economics Perspectives in Economic Analysis," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 104(3), pages 281-285, November.
    11. Axel Börsch-Supan & Tabea Bucher-Koenen & Michela Coppola & Bettina Lamla, 2015. "Savings In Times Of Demographic Change: Lessons From The German Experience," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 807-829, September.
    12. Mukhopadhyay, Jyoti Prasad, 2014. "Does access to microfinance affect consumption inequality? :evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Andhra Pradesh, India," MPRA Paper 58674, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Davidson, Russell & Flachaire, Emmanuel, 2007. "Asymptotic and bootstrap inference for inequality and poverty measures," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 141-166, November.
    14. Essig, Lothar, 2005. "Household saving in Germany : results from SAVE 2001 - 2003," Papers 05-23, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    15. Barbara Berkel, 2006. "Retirement Age and Preretirement in German Administrative Data," MEA discussion paper series 06107, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    16. Mark Trede, 2002. "Bootstrapping inequality measures under the null hypothesis: Is it worth the effort?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 261-282, December.
    17. Timm Bönke & Markus M. Grabka & Carsten Schröder & Edward N. Wolff, 2020. "A Head‐to‐Head Comparison of Augmented Wealth in Germany and the United States," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(3), pages 1140-1180, July.
    18. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Winter, Joachim, 1999. "Pension reform, savings behavior and corporate governance," Papers 99-48, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    19. Daniele Vignoli & Gustavo Santis, 2010. "Individual and Contextual Correlates of Economic Difficulties in Old Age in Europe," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 29(4), pages 481-501, August.
    20. Wagmiller, Robert L. & Lee, Kristen Schultz & Su, Jessica Houston, 2020. "The role of welfare in family income inequality: 1968–2016," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    21. William Horrace & Joseph Marchand & Timothy Smeeding, 2008. "Ranking inequality: Applications of multivariate subset selection," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(1), pages 5-32, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:germec:v:11:y:2010:i:4:p:487-510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfsocea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.