Munich -

Berlin -

PHF-SAVE Conference on "Household Finances, Saving and Inequality: An International Perspective", 21-22 March 2013 - Call for Papers The Deutsche Bundesbank and the Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) are organizing a conference on: Household Finances, Saving and Inequality: An International Perspective 21 – 22 March 2013 Eltville, Germany Topics and objectives: The conference brings together researchers and policymakers with an interest in households’ financial behavior, asset accumulation over the life cycle, wealth distribution, portfolio choice and behavioral household finance. In order to improve our understanding of households’ financial decision making, their responses to shocks and institutional changes and consequently the transmission process of monetary policy, the National Central Banks in the Eurosystem have set up household surveys with detailed information on household on wealth and portfolio structure. The conference takes place in connection with the release of two brand new household data sets: the first wave of the Bundesbank’s Panel on Household Finances (PHF) and the Eurosystem’s Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), which collects household-level data on households’ finances and consumption across countries in the Eurosystem. We therefore particularly welcome empirical contributions with a focus on cross-country studies using internationally comparable data sets such as the PHF, SAVE and the new and established household surveys included in the HFCS. Topics of interest include but are not limited to: Household saving, consumption and liquidity constraints Homeownership and mortgages Behavioral aspects of household finance: expectations, preferences and attitudes Households’ employment histories and saving decisions Asset allocation over the life-cycle Household finance and banking Financial literacy, cognitive abilities and financial decisions Evolution of income and wealth distribution Participation in public pensions, occupational pensions and private old-age provision Data user workshop: To familiarize researchers with the PHF and statistical techniques needed to work with it, there will be a half-day user workshop organized on the day before the conference in the city center of Frankfurt am Main (March 20). Interested PhD students and researchers are encouraged to register soon as the number of places is limited. Keynote Speakers: The conference will include keynote lectures by Michael Haliassos (Goethe University Frankfurt) and Michael D. Hurd (RAND). Venue and Participants: The conference will take place in the Conference Center of the Deutsche Bundesbank in Eltville, situated in the Rhine Valley approximately 50 km from Frankfurt am Main. A conference dinner will be hosted. The conference is open to both young and experienced researchers working on related topics. As the conference intends to strengthen the exchange between practitioners and researchers, participation without paper contribution is also welcome. Due to the limited number of places available in the Bundesbank’s training center in Eltville, we encourage potential participants to register early. Submission of Papers: Those wishing to present a paper should send a detailed abstract or a full draft of the paper (strongly preferred). All submissions must include a cover page including authors’ full name and affiliation and contact details for corresponding author/s (address, phone and email). All papers or long abstracts should be submitted electronically as doc or pdf files to: phf@bundesbank.de on or before: January 20, 2013 . Authors of accepted papers will be notified no later than February 8, 2013. Registration: Those wishing to attend the conference, but not to present a paper should register by: February 15, 2013, sending an email to phf@bundesbank.de, specifying name, affiliation and contact details (address, phone, email). Those wishing to attend the user workshop on March 20 should contact us no later than January 15, 2013 by writing an e-mail to the above address, specifying occupation, contact details and the professional reason for wishing to participate. There will be a separate announcement for the user workshop. Please note that there is no registration fee. The Call for Papers can be downloaded here: Call for Papers

Ifo / CESifo & University of Munich & MEA Conference on “Empirical Health Economics”, February 15-16, 2013 - Call for Papers On February 15-16, 2013, the Department of International Institutional Comparisons of the Ifo Institute, CESifo, the Economics Department of the University of Munich and the Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy will organize a joint conference on Empirical Health Economics in Munich. The conference is intended to encourage further research in the areas of empirical health economics, and to stimulate interaction and co-operation in this area of research. The specific focus of the conference is on the following topics: • Measurement of health • Causal effects of policy interventions • Health behaviors and outcomes • Health inequality • Health and socio-economic status • Early-life determinants of health Empirical papers on these and other areas of empirical health economics are welcome. Among the economists who have already accepted our invitation to present a paper are Amitabh Chandra (Harvard), Arie Kapteyn (RAND), and Maarten Lindeboom (VU University Amsterdam). The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2012. Submissions should be original research papers that have not yet been accepted for publication. For submission of papers, please visit www.CESifo.de. Go to the Forthcoming Conferences page, click on the conference name and then on the “Submit Paper” link below the conference description. Only online submissions are accepted. Should you have any (technical) difficulties with the online submission procedure, please contact office@cesifo.de for assistance. The Call for Papers can be downloaded here: Call for Papers

Press release - De Gruyter has launched an innovative new partnership for open-access distribution with the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). A new study, “Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations in Europe: First Results from SHARE after the Economic Crisis,” will appear in mid-2013 as an open-access publication, meaning it will be available free of charge to researchers and decision-makers around the world. Please find the full press release here: English version German version Link to press release on de Gruyter website

The MEA has now existed for more than a decade. Our short brochure celebrates this occasion with a look back at the formation of the MEA and its scientific development. We will also feature a selection of some of our most interesting research results. - Brochure 10 years of MEA