Geography of Savings in the German Occupational Pension System
Regional Studies, Forthcoming
32 Pages Posted: 3 Nov 2010 Last revised: 18 May 2012
Date Written: November 2, 2010
Abstract
Relationships between individual traits and savings decisions vary geographically. Understanding the structure of such relationships is interesting in general, but it is particularly important in the case of the Germany, where the pension reform of 2001 significantly decreased the level of public pensions, and subsidized voluntary funded pension plans were created to so that individuals can save for themselves. This paper analyses the regional structure of individual savings decisions in the case of occupational pensions using a unique, commercial data-set containing the records of more than 286 thousand pension plan contracts signed between 2002 and 2009 across the regions of Germany. The analysis provides a framework for applying different geographical location definitions in explaining financial behaviour. The differences in the relationship between metropolitan/non-metropolitan, East-West and North and South are explained with the different contexts. Implications are drawn on the relationships among human behaviour, geography and context.
Keywords: Economic Geography, Mixed Models, Behaviour, Riester Reform, Pension Savings, Individualisation, Local Relationships
JEL Classification: D12, E21, G23, H31, R1, R2
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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