Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/27673 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
Economics Working Paper No. 2008-18
Publisher: 
Kiel University, Department of Economics, Kiel
Abstract: 
Since 2002 the German government has promoted private retirement saving plans by means of special subsidies and tax incentives (Riester scheme). This policy mainly targets low-income households. Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel, we scrutinize the impact of the Riester scheme on private savings. Our empirical strategy consists of treating the introduction of the Riester scheme as a natural experiment. The estimation results cast some doubts on the effectiveness of the Riester scheme in raising private savings and call for enhanced systematic efforts to evaluate that policy.
Subjects: 
retirement saving
Riester scheme
tax incentives
subsidy incentives
pensions
treatment analysis
JEL: 
D12
I38
H31
H24
D14
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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