Band 71, Heft 3

A compulsory funded supplementary pension scheme is being discussed to prevent the number of retirees relying on tax financed assistance from increasing. The economic reason could be to prevent free-rider behaviour. The article discusses, why this argument is not convincing. Moreover, we argue that often too little attention is paid to possible welfare losses that households suffer if they prefer accumulating assets to provide for old age but are forced to annuitise the capital. Empirical evidence shows that the accumulation of assets plays an important role in household retirement planning. Therefore, it would make more sense to integrate asset accumulation into eligible old age provision instead.

There is probably no way around the reorganization of the regulatory framework for cross-border trade in goods and services. The WTO cannot be reformed because of profound differences between important member states. Open clubs of market-based economies are a possible alternative. However, these plurilateral agreements must not be conceived as closed systems, but must be open to all states, whether democratically constituted or not. It is a matter of enforcing economic principles and not of implementing a values-based foreign economic policy. At the same time, it should not be forgotten that the international division of labor has ensured high gains in global welfare. Specialization, competition and the reduction of trade costs have made these successes possible, not state control. The re-emergence of government economic planning, for example in the production of semiconductors, is leading us in the wrong direction.

The COVID-pandemic is an unprecedented uncertainty shock. The increased uncertainty made global supply chains more vulnerable and costly. At the same the financing costs of a robot relative to hourly wages declined substantially when central banks reduced interest rates to fight the crisis. The pandemic is expected to lead to de-globalization with supply chains declining by 35 percent. I then discuss whether governments should intervene to help firms navigate the crisis.

The illusion that open and free trade, no matter with which partner, also creates fair and sustainable trade as well as eventually political change and a better, safer, world has long been put into question. Since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, it has completely evaporated. It would be wrong, however to completely abandon the concept of “change through trade” and to view trade policy solely as a protectionist element. Trade can indeed stimulate sustainable growth, bring about positive structural change and bind countries together more strongly – but only if the conditions are set correctly. And if both sides of the equation demonstrate the necessary will to do so. There has been a clear lack of this direction and will in trade policy and beyond in recent decades. The challenges facing a modern and positive trade policy are many. Some of them are worth considering in detail before drawing conclusions for a reorientation of what remains the Union’s most effective geopolitical policy area.

Based on the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), the study provides an overview of the distribution of digital literacy in Germany up to the beginning of the Covid pandemic. Already in childhood and adolescence, there are systematic differences in digital literacy depending on socio-economic background. Children with a migration background and those with unemployed parents show particularly low digital literacy. Gender-specific differences in digital literacy are small in childhood and adolescence, but clearly pronounced among adults. In addition, people with little formal education and people with a migration background have systematically lower digital competences in adulthood. The education sector should therefore promote the digital competences of children and young people at an early stage in order to compensate for the apparently low level of competence development outside the formal education sector. Educational opportunities for digitally less competent adults should also be strengthened to enable older generations to continue to participate in the changing spheres of life, education, and work.