Partial retirement and the earnings test

This paper studies the effects of the earnings test on retirement behavior. The earnings tests of most social security systems tax post0retirement earnings at a relatively high level and do not lead to actuarially fair increases in futere benefits. This results in discouragement of partial retirement. The paper shows that a reduction in the earnings test's tax rate is likely to increase part-time work, and that, in special cases, the increase in work effort may even lead to a reduction in the net transfer from social security to the individual.I wish to thank the Institute of Industrial Relations at UC Berkeley for its hospitality and support. This research has been financed by the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung. I am indebted to J. K. Brunner, W. T. Dickens, J. Falkinger, E. Lazear, T. Sikor, B.-A. Wickström, R. Winter-Ebmer, and two referees for comments on an earlier draft.     

Het Credietverkeer in de late Middeleeuwen

Bruno Kuske. Die Entstehung der Kreditwirtschaft und des Kapital-verkehrs. Kölner Vorträge, I, Die Kreditwirtschaft, Leipzig 1927.     

Rückversicherung Versus Indemnity Type Insurance Linked Securities: Eine Arbitrageanalyse

This paper compares insurance linked securities and traditional reinsurance on a structured technical level. Goal is to mathematically capture and compare both risk transfer mechanisms on a conceptual basis. Starting with the basic P&L position of a non-life insurance company, the alternative coverage structures are developed and formally captured with increasing degrees of complexity. While the focus rests on pure insurance risk, additional pricing relevant cost and risk aspects are addressed as well.     

Zu den zwei Versicherungsbegriffen von Werner Mahr und ihrer Bedeutung in der heutigen Zeit

Werner Mahr differentiates between two notions of insurance based upon either the mutuality or the speculation principle. While Mahr however supposes that these two principles melt into the pure insurance-technological economics through the interplay of the probability principle, the differences will be stressed. In the first step, the (theoretical) distinctions are elaborated between the “ideal” insurance model of K. J. Arrow, based on the mutuality principle, and the “classical” insurance model of K. Borch, building on the speculation principle or the reserve theory according to A. Willett. In the second step, these differentiations are elucidated with the help of three examples: uncertainty about the risks, correlated risks, and macroeconomic, in particular demographic risks.     

Vom ?Alles-oder-Nichts-Prinzip“ zur Quotelung der Versicherungsleistung – Rechtsvergleichende überlegungen zur Reform des Versicherungsvertragsrechts in der Schweiz und in Deutschland

The reform of the German Insurance Contract Law (??d-VVG??) and the ongoing revision of the Swiss Insurance Contract Law (??ch-VVG??) show numerous parallels, driven by the aim of policyholder-/consumer-protection. This article is exclusively about the parallel tendency in both laws largely to abolish the ??All or nothing?? rule ??Alles-oder-Nichts-Prinzip?? (i.e., the principle according to which, the insurer is either obliged to pay the full amount insured or is fully relieved from its payment obligation) and to replace it instead with a system of the proportionate reduction of insurance benefits. The abolishment of the ??Alles-oder-Nichts-Prinzip?? affects the legal consequences of (1)??in Germany??the causation of the insured event (2)?the violation of contractual obligations, (3)?increase of the hazards and (4)??in Switzerland??the violation of pre-contractual disclosure obligations. The article will show that, despite this parallel tendency, both systems continue to have considerable differences in how they apply and will apply the proportionate reduction of insurance benefits.