The Social Welfare State during the Demographic Revolution: The Reform Process of the German Pension System

This project, commissioned by the Bundessozialgericht (German Federal High Court for Social Law), has evaluated the 2001-2007 reforms of the German public pension system. It analyzed three conceptionally distinct transitions which have been bundled in several reform steps: (a) a gradual transition from defined benefits to defined contributions in the public pension system, effectively creating a version of the Swedish Notional Defined Contribution (NDC) system, (2) a gradual transition from a declining life-time work phase to a substantially later retirement age, and (3) a gradual transition from an almost monolithical pay-as-you-go pension system to a much higher share of prefunded pension income. This project has been successfully completed with a paper published as part of the “Denkschrift” (think piece) for the Bundessozialgericht.