Household saving in Germany : results from SAVE 2001 - 2003

This paper presents selected highlights drawn from the German SAVE surveys in 2001 and 2003, expanding the findings of Börsch-Supan and Essig (2003) along three lines. First, it analyses the households' assessment of their general, economic and financial well-being in the past, present and future. Second, it reports findings for the respondents' information level on, and expectations about, the public pension system. Third, it presents answers to a newly developed set of questions about risk. Specifically, it tests the reliability of the experimental question design and links self-assessed risk to respondents' financial behavior