Band 69, Heft 3

Reorganization of the office-based emergency care system is currently on the political agenda in Germany. Analysing the present situation, the present study makes an empirical comparison between usage of the office-based emergency service and of the competing hospital outpatient departments in different localities, also examining the possible reasons for the differences. Family doctor density was found to have a negative influence on the number of cases in hospital outpatient departments and a positive influence on the number of cases dealt with by the emergency service of the office-based physicians. Further, the number of hospitals in a county correlates positively with the cases in hospital outpatient departments.

Considering the aging process in Germany with fewer young people having to finance more elderly, the government coalition aims to make the voluntary but subsidized Riester pension more attractive. This contribution backs the idea of replacing in parts the pay-as-you-go state pension scheme with a funded component and admonishes the urgency of reform. However, two mistakes are pointed out that have been made due to a lack of political courage: Firstly, the contribution guarantee leads to considerable losses in returns and secondly, the voluntary nature of the funded component leads to adverse selection. Since a reform would presumably not induce the desired renaissance, the proposal is to introduce a fully funded mandatory component.

The Riester pensions today face two main problems: First, life insurance industry in Germany faces the problem of inadequate solvency. Therefore, there is a need that we take the Riester pension not as a sole part of the life insurance sector and open it to the whole sector of financial services. Second, the previous regulation of the Riester pension is causing problems. Particularly the guarantee forces mandatory retirement with a life insurance company and the requirement of capital preservation. Therefore we have to review these two guarantee aspects. It is also important to limit costs and to simplify the funding system. The concept of the “Basisdepot-Vorsorge” solves these problems while it is based on promoting precisely those who want to save up for their retirement during their active career, no matter what kind of financial service is included in the accumulation or decumulation phase. To include all different financial service providers creates the needed economical competition to ensure better products for the Riester-Rente.

The Riester pension was well thought out, but badly done. It is primarily the agents and insurance companies who benefit from Riester, while consumers hardly benefit at all – and if they do, it is only because of the generous state subsidy. The reform proposals to date do not eliminate the deficits, but are rather a restructuring plan for the supply side. However, private pension contracts should also pay off without subsidies. State-organised standard products in Sweden or Great Britain show how such efficiency can be achieved. The German “Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband” has made a suggestion in this respect, the “Extrarente”: a public body pools consumer demand and can thus cost-effectively organise their capital investment on a share scheme basis.

As the German collective bargaining coverage continues to decline, calls for governmental measures to stop this development become stronger. However, social partners’ possibilities to strengthen the collective bargaining system themselves are often ignored. To identify possible actions for employer organisations and trade unions, this paper investigates the satisfaction of covered firms with their sector-level agreement in the German metal and electrical industry. The aim is to gain information on factors influencing the satisfaction of covered firms. Based on this information, the social partners can stabilise or even raise the satisfaction of firms covered by the sector-level agreement and thus support the whole system.

The rising debt-to-GDP ratios of the eurozone member states result not least from the coronavirus crisis. Without external support, especially with regard to Italy, but also for other Mediterranean states, access to the capital market could be seriously threatened in the medium run. The recovery fund ‘Next Generation EU’ likely directs the fundamental structures of the European Union (EU) towards a fiscal union with considerable transfer elements, while the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP), which is declared as a monetary policy instrument, is even discussed as a violation of the prohibition of monetary financing. As an alternative, this contribution analyses a debt relief by the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), implemented via an EU debt agency. This construction would avoid a negative equity position of the central banks and also enable a legal integration into the EU system. The question remains: What would be the consequences of such a non-recurring step?