The Joint Distribution of Net Worth and Pension Wealth in Germany

Kurzfassung/Abstract

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.