Will Competing Objectives in Germany's Pension and Labor Market Policies Harm Women's Material Well-Being at Old Age?

Anika Rasner, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Marjorie McElroy, Duke University

Until recently, the German pension system assumed the typical German worker works full-time until retirement. Consequently, these workers received sufficiently high pensions during retirement to maintain approximately the same standard of living as when they worked. However, persistent unemployment that followed German reunification has led to reforms that promote so-called atypical low paid jobs and changes in unemployment compensation. Simultaneously, large demographic changes have prompted a sequence of pension reforms. These reforms will alter the level and composition of retirement income. Using a new dataset that merges administrative pension records with longitudinal household survey data, this paper investigates the effects of the confluence of demographic change, pension law reforms and atypical work exemptions on the retirement incomes of various demographic groups using event-history analysis. In particular, we ask whether these changes will undo the successes Germany has had in alleviating poverty amongst the elderly, and amongst elderly women in particular.