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The Joint Distribution of Net Worth and Pension Wealth in Germany
Author(s) -
Bönke Timm,
Grabka Markus M.,
Schröder Carsten,
Wolff Edward N.,
Zyska Lennard
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/roiw.12371
Subject(s) - pension , economics , national wealth , wealth distribution , distribution (mathematics) , net worth , inequality , value (mathematics) , population , social security , population ageing , labour economics , finance , market economy , debt , mathematical analysis , demography , mathematics , machine learning , sociology , computer science
The research on wealth inequality has generally focused on real and financial assets, while giving little attention to pension wealth: the present value of future pension entitlements from public and company pension schemes. This is surprising given the important role pension plans play in guaranteeing material security and well‐being for a majority of the population, and suggests that they should be accounted for in peoples’ wealth portfolios. Using novel data from the Socio‐Economic Panel (SOEP), we study the incidence, relevance, and distribution of individual pension wealth, net worth, and augmented wealth (the sum of the two) in Germany. Further, we investigate age‐wealth profiles and differences between East and West Germany.