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Papers by Friedrich Breyer

Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, 2002

We thank seminar participants at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg for helpful comme... more We thank seminar participants at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg for helpful comments and suggestions.

International journal of health care finance and economics, 2002

While most of the debate on "rationing in health care" focusses on the distribution of ... more While most of the debate on "rationing in health care" focusses on the distribution of scarce medical resources among competing needs, which we propose to call "secondary rationing," this paper is concerned with "primary rationing," i.e., the conscious decision by society to limit the amount of resources devoted to a collectively financed health care system. Based upon a number of transparent normative criteria, we analyze whether primary rationing should be performed and, if so, what type should be chosen (hard vs. soft, explicit vs. implicit). Finally we discuss whether age should be used as a criterion in any systematic attempt at primary rationing of health care.

WiSt - Wirtschaftswissenschaftliches Studium, 2002

Journal of Public Economics, 1993

A mandatory unfunded pension system can lead to welfare losses if the contributions are levied in... more A mandatory unfunded pension system can lead to welfare losses if the contributions are levied in such a way that the labor supply decision of the individuals is distorted. This is shown in an overlapping-generations model for a closed economy. Furthermore, it is shown that under certain conditions a gradual abolition of unfunded pensions -using lump-sum contributions in the transition phase -can lead to an intergenerational Pareto improvement. Thus the paper extends a result recently derived by Homburg for a small open economy to the closed economy case.

Journal of Public Economics, 2002

In this paper we analyze the effects of labor-market integration on national, unfunded public-pen... more In this paper we analyze the effects of labor-market integration on national, unfunded public-pension systems that are organized according to a ‘place of residence’ principle. With this principle, labor might migrate for purely fiscal reasons. Thus, some kind of coordination becomes necessary. We first show that for the case of unrestricted labor mobility the equalization of contributions is necessary and sufficient for efficiency if the pension systems remain decentralized. However, national decision makers do not in general have an incentive to voluntarily stick to equalized contributions. With a segmented labor market where one segment is costlessly mobile whereas the other segment is completely immobile, the coordination requirements are far more complicated if migration cannot compensate for differences in national fertilities. If it can, the efficiency of equalization turns out to be robust. Finally we show that replacing the principle of residence with the ‘principle of nationality’ does not eliminate the risk of fiscal externalities.

Health Economics, 2003

In many countries, social health insurance systems are being reformed in favor of more competitio... more In many countries, social health insurance systems are being reformed in favor of more competition among insurers, while premiums are community rated by regulation. The implicit incentives for insurers to engage in risk selection can only be curtailed using appropriate systems of risk-adjusted equalization payments among insurers. To develop these systems, predictors of individual utilization patterns have to be identified, e.g. via regression analysis using previous utilization data. In some countries such as Germany, such data are hardly ever available. In the early nineties, a number of sickness funds participated in an experiment in which individual utilization data were collected. Our data set covers more than 70 000 members of company sickness funds over a 5-year period. We analyze sociodemographic determinants of utilization which could be used as risk adjusters in a risk equalization scheme. Our results suggest that besides age and sex, the set of risk adjusters should include income, family status and a dummy for the last year of life.

German Economic Review, 2010

Declining fertility and increasing longevity have rendered public pension systems in many OECD co... more Declining fertility and increasing longevity have rendered public pension systems in many OECD countries unsustainable and have triggered substantial reforms of these systems. One of the officially declared reform objectives is to raise the average retirement age. Crucial parameters for this endeavor are first the legal retirement age and secondly the early retirement provisions inherent in the public pension system. In this paper we discuss several notions of "fairness" of early retirement provisions in pay-as-you-go financed public pension systems and we claim that the "right" notion of fairness depends upon the objectives pursued in the design of pension systems. We point out the problems attached to the extreme positions "efficiency" and "welfare maximization" and propose a more modest concept of equity called "distributive neutrality", which is based on the notion that the ratio between total benefits and total contributions to the pension system should not depend systematically on the individual's ability. By applying this concept to the German retirement benefit formula and taking empirically estimated relationships between average annual income, life expectancy and retirement age into account, we show that at the present discount rate of 3.6 per cent per year there is systematic redistribution from low to high earners, which would be attenuated if the discount rate were raised. This seemingly paradoxical finding is due to the fact that in our data set, there is a negative relationship between earnings and retirement age.

FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, 2009

In several OECD countries, public pay-as-you-go financed pension systems have undergone major ref... more In several OECD countries, public pay-as-you-go financed pension systems have undergone major reforms in which future retirement benefit promises have been scaled down.

European Journal of Political Economy, 1997

... reproduction rate on the optimal values of τ t and P t is indeterminate as such, it should be... more ... reproduction rate on the optimal values of τ t and P t is indeterminate as such, it should be equal to the conditional effect of a ... There is mutual altruism between parents and descendants, but it is so weak that, in the absence of a social security system, private transfers are ...

Health Econ, 2013

The Editors wish to express their gratitude to the following people who generously provided advic... more The Editors wish to express their gratitude to the following people who generously provided advice on manuscripts as reviewers in the period 2011/2012. ... Jason Abrevaya Ramses Abul Naga Wiktor Adamowicz Anna Aizer Richard Akresh Maiwenn Al Hareth Al-Janabi Paul Allanson Sara Allin Mabel Andal��n Henrik Andersen Gerard Anderson Rob Anderson Aslam H Anis Heather Antecol Jose-Ignacio Anton Yaa Antwi Benedicte Apouey Jacob Arendt Jan Erik Askildsen John Ataguba Arthur Attema Nicole Au Kimberly Babiarz Steef Baeten Teresa Bago d'Uva ...

Wirtschaftsdienst Zeitschrift Fur Wirtschaftspolitik, 2001