Die Vermögensverteilung und die Reform der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

The structure of the compulsory pension system (CPS) in the Federal Republic of Germany has been changed fundamentally. The federal government has decided to introduce a private pension system on a voluntary basis. The payments to this voluntary system are to constitute a capital stock to supplement the payments of the compulsory pension system. Comprehensive fiscal subsidies will be introduced to support this change to the pension system. This paper discusses the special situation of families with children. The second section investigates the extent to which families with children were able to accumulate private wealth in the last ten years in Germany. In the third section the main features of the intended changes to the compulsory pension system are described, and an overview of the planned fiscal subsidies is provided. In the fourth and final section we attempt to evaluate the changes with particular attention to the situation of families.Die Struktur der Gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung (GRV) in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ist grundsätzlich geändert worden. Die Bundesregierung hat die Einführung einer zusätzlichen privaten Alterssicherung auf freiwilliger Basis beschlossen. Hierdurch soll ein Kapitalstock gebildet werden, der die Leistungen der GRV ergänzt. Zur Förderung dieser Systemänderung der Alterssicherung werden umfangreiche fiskalische Unterstützungsmaßnahmen eingeführt. Im Rahmen des hier vorliegenden Beitrags wird auf die besondere Situation der Familien mit Kindern eingegangen. Im zweiten Abschnitt wird untersucht, inwieweit Familien mit Kindern in den letzten zehn Jahren in Deutschland in der Lage waren, privates Vermögen aufzubauen. Im dritten Abschnitt werden die beabsichtigten Änderungen des Systems der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung in den Grundzügen dargestellt, und es wird ein Überblick über die geplanten fiskalischen Fördermaßnahmen gegeben. Im abschließenden vierten Abschnitt wird eine Bewertung der Änderungen vor allem in Bezug auf die Situation von Familien versucht

Local colourings and monochromatic partitions in complete bipartite graphs

We show that for any $2$-local colouring of the edges of the balanced complete bipartite graph $K_{n,n}$, its vertices can be covered with at most~$3$ disjoint monochromatic paths. And, we can cover almost all vertices of any complete or balanced complete bipartite $r$-locally coloured graph with $O(r^2)$ disjoint monochromatic cycles.\\ We also determine the $2$-local bipartite Ramsey number of a path almost exactly: Every $2$-local colouring of the edges of $K_{n,n}$ contains a monochromatic path on $n$ vertices.Comment: 18 page

Inequality of the Distribution of Personal Wealth in Germany 1973-1998

This paper attempts to define financial globalization as a process whereby financial markets internationally are integrated so closely that they can be considered as a single market. The process, viewed as a by- product of financial liberalization, is only a necessary condition for financial globalization, however. The sufficient condition is the creation of world-wide single currency, managed and regulated by a single international monetary authority. The system itself needs to be managed carefully to avoid the kind of crises countries have experienced over the last 30 years or so. This sufficient condition has not yet been met.Personal wealth distribution, Germany, inequality, household wealth, disposable wealth of age groups, disposable wealth of pseuda- cohorts

"Inequality of the Distribution of Personal Wealth in Germany 1973 - 1998"

This paper reports on trends in inequality of the distribution of household disposable wealth in West Germany from 1973 to 1998, and compares the changes in the size distribution of household disposable wealth in West and East Germany between 1993 and 1998. The empirical findings are based on several cross sections of the Income and Consumption Survey (ICS), which is conducted every five years by the German Federal Statistical Office. Since these surveys are large quota samples that exclude the very rich, the institutionalized population, and -- until 1993 -- foreign households, as well as equity in private businesses, the inequality measures derived can be considered the lower bounds of the estimates of their true values. The Gini coefficients for disposable household wealth are about double the coefficients for household disposable income and about three times the coefficients for equivalent disposable income of persons. Except for 1998, net financial assets are less unequally distributed than total disposable wealth but net housing wealth is distributed more unequally. We find a slight decrease in the inequality of disposable household wealth between 1973 and 1993, followed by a slight increase until 1998. We also find the well-known hump shape of relative average wealth holdings of age groups, but by looking at the same birth cohorts in the consecutive cross-section samples we can show that the relative position of the two oldest birth cohorts deteriorates only slightly in old age. If one changes the perspective to disposable wealth per household member, one finds that there is only a slight decrease of the relative wealth position but no reduction in the absolute levels of disposable wealth. This is contrary to the predictions of the life cycle model. Bequests between spouses and composition effects can be reasons for this surprising result. Looking at inequality within household age groups, we see a consistent pattern of highest inequality among the youngest age group that decreases until retirement age, and then increases again. This points to inheritances and gifts inter vivo even at young age. Comparing West to East Germany, we find greater inequality of the wealth distribution in East Germany but lower inequality of the distribution of disposable income of households and of equivalent income of persons. We also see a strong tendency to a convergence in the distributions of wealth and income between West and East Germany. Closing the gap in GDP per capita between West and East Germany leads to increasing inequality of income but decreasing inequality of wealth in East Germany.

Gauge theory in co-homogeneity one

We use co-homogeneity one symmetries to construct new families of instantons over Riemannian manifolds with special holonomy groups and asymptotically conical geometry. In doing so, we give a complete description of the behaviour of Calabi-Yau instantons and monopoles with an SU(2)²-symmetry, by considering gauge theory on the smoothing and small resolution of the conifold, and on the canonical bundle of CP¹×CP¹, with their known asymptotically conical co-homogeneity one Calabi-Yau metrics. Furthermore, we classify SU(2)³-invariant G₂-instantons on the spinor bundle of the 3-sphere, equipped with the asymptotically conical co-homogeneity one G₂-metrics of Bryant-Salamon, and show that if any non-invariant instanton shares the same asymptotic behaviour, its deformation theory must be obstructed