Was sind die richtigen Rentenabschläge? – neue Perspektiven

Abstract

Summary The correct adjustment of pension benefits when postponing retirement is calculated by three „income-oriented“ approaches: the incentive-neutral approach, the budget-neutral approach and as an innovation the return-neutral approach. It turns out, that the three approaches differ just in their underlying discount rate but not in their method of calculation. In addition it can be shown, that the incentive-neutral approach leads to incentive neutrality when the implicit taxation of contributions is equal to the implicit taxation of the early retirement pension. The correct adjustment factors were also calculated for those cases, where the relevant alternative for early retirement is unemployment or not to continue work. As an alternative to the income-oriented approaches the utility-based approach is presented. In this case the results strongly depend on the underlying utility function and the parametric values. Overall, the statutory adjustment factor of 3,6 % per year tends to be too low applying the income-oriented approaches. Using the utility-based approach, the calculated adjustment rates can be seen as too high or too low, depending on the assumptions on the utility function and the parameter constellation.