Essay I: This essay provides an overview of the history of the Swedish pension system. Starting with the implementation of the public pension system in 1913, it outlines the key components of each major pension reform up until today along with a discussion of the main trade-offs and concerns that policy makers have faced. It also describes the historical background of the four largest occupational pension plans in Sweden and the mutual influence between these plans and the public pension system.        Essay II: Despite the fact that the increasing involvement of the private sector in pension provision has brought more flexibility to the pay-out phase of retirement, little is known about the characteristics of those who choose to annuitize their pension wealth and those who do not. I combine unique micro-data from a large Swedish occupational pension plan with rich national administrative data to study the choice between life annuities and fixed-term payouts with a minimum payout length of 5 years for 183,000 retiring white-collar workers. I find that low accumulation of assets is strongly associated with the choice of the 5-year payout. Consistent with individuals selecting payout length based on private information about their mortality prospects, individuals who choose the 5-year payout are in worse health, exhibit higher ex-post mortality rates and have shorter-lived parents than annuitants. Individuals also seem to respond to large, tax-induced changes in annuity prices.            Essay III: This essay estimates the causal effect of postponing retirement on a wide range of health outcomes using Swedish administrative data on cause-specific mortality, hospitalizations and drug prescriptions. Exogenous variation in retirement timing comes from a reform which raised the age at which broad categories of Swedish local government workers were entitled to retire with full pension benefits from 63 to 65. The reform caused a remarkable shift in the retirement distribution of the affected workers, increasing the actual retirement age by more than 4.5 months. Instrumental variable estimation results show no effect of postponing retirement on the overall consumption of health care, nor on the risk of dying early. There is evidence, however, of a reduction in diabetes-related hospitalizations and in the consumption of drugs that treat anxiety. Essay IV (with Per Engström): The consumption based method to estimate underreporting among self-employed, introduced by Pissarides and Weber (1989), is one of the workhorses in the empirical literature on tax evasion/avoidance. We show that failure to account for transitory income fluctuations in current income may overestimate the degree of underreporting by around 40 percent. Previous studies typically use instrumental variable methods to address the issue. In contrast, our access to registry based longitudinal income measures allows a direct approach based on more permanent income measures. This also allows us to evaluate the performance of a list of instruments widely used in the previous literature. Our analysis shows that capital income is the most suitable instrument in our application, while education and housing related measures do not seem to satisfy the exclusion restrictions.

Diplomová práce - Soňa Součková: Simulation of pension reform impact on real estate market Abstract The objective of this thesis is to estimate the impact of pension reform on commercial property market in the Czech Republic during the period of 2013 -2017. Our hypothesis is that a potential pension reform would have a positive significant impact on property investment volumes via institutions constituting the second pillar. In the first step, we provide analysis of pension reforms recently applied in Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Given analysis of selected countries and specifics of the proposed Czech pension reform, we estimate that the institutions in the second pillar may face additional yearly cash inflows beginning on EUR 1.23 billion in 2013 and further increasing to EUR 2.59 billion in 2017. Furthermore, we estimate that a likely share allocation by second pillar institutions into real estate would lie in the region of 0 - 14% depending on the discrete decision of the regulators. Using a conservative leverage of 40% for bank financing, we estimate that the expected investment volumes allocated by second pillar institutions into real estate would be EUR 61 - 287 million in year 2013. Given the average investment volumes of EUR 1334 million p.a. allocated into commercial...

The work aims to explain the character and success/failure of pension reforms with help of political explanatory variables. The constitution of given political system is considered, as well as the actual political alignment and the role of electorate, in explaining the processes underlying the pension scheme reforms - a major topic of today's aging societies. The case study approach is used, utilising the recent experience of Great Britain and Sweden in reforming the pensions. The findings are compared with the results and conclusions suggested by a dynamic economic model of pension scheme switch, demonstrating eventually what factors and conditions are favorable for pension reforms, both from the political and the economic point of view.

This dissertation work focuses on evaluation of the performance and credibility of domestic pension funds. It includes information about pension systems in six selected countries in the world, specifically Chile, Hungary, Switzerland, Poland, Sweden and Slovakia, and culminates with a proposal for pension reform in the Czech Republic. The evaluation of the performance of pension funds is based on experience with measuring performance in twenty-three countries of the world processed for the OECD and cites original basis materials for proposals for the regulation of pension funds in the Czech Republic. Setting of indicators is preceded by an analysis of measurements of performance by the Association of Pension Funds in the Czech Republic and the Research Institute of Labour and Social Affairs. The most important proposed indicators include the actual result in relation to the participants' funds, which captures the influence of changes in the market values of financial assets, and the indicator of competence covers obligations, reflecting the influence of changes in costs during subsequent periods, which include yet undistributed commission for mediators of pension insurance. For a comparison of benefits and risks, mutual funds denominated in CZK were selected, which were verified as a suitable alternative to long-term saving. The method of evaluation of pension funds itself is based on explanation, evaluation and selection of favourable indicators for determining the rating of domestic pension funds, which clients of pension funds could use as a method for evaluating the credibility and benefits of a specific domestic pension fund for the purpose of securing it in retirement age.

The main aim of the thesis is to give comprehensive overview on the issue of pension reform in order to clarify, with political-economic and socio-economic context, the position and role of the private sector in pension system of Czech Republic and evaluate whether it is sufficient form of security for old age. The thesis analyzed trends, with specific meaning and influence of the social situation in the EU. There was made the description of pension system of Chile, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, USA, France and Germany. The thesis also analyzed the pre-reform and after-reform pension system in Czech Republic. The last chapter was dedicated to a case study focusing on the simulation with respect of different age and income of various persons. The conclusion showed partial opt-out preference for younger people with long term savings, or older people with income at least above 40.000,-CZK. It also proved benefits of additional savings, especially with state aid, tax relief and employer contribution. The thesis proved the fact that private sector is able to provide the security for old age people only with sufficiently high income, sufficiently long period of savings and also only with personal responsibility of every person alone. In all other cases the savings in private sector must be comprehend as an additional saving and not as an adequate substitute for state pension.

In der Bundesrepublik hat sich die Überzeugung durchgesetzt, angesichts des bevorstehenden demographischen Wandels sei eine Stärkung kapitalgedeckter Elemente in der Altersvorsorge notwendig. Die Riestersche Rentenreform des Jahres 2001 stellt einen Schritt in diese Richtung dar. Zunächst wird dargelegt, dass die demographisch induzierten Schwierigkeiten der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung (GRV) wahrscheinlich ebenso überschätzt werden wie das Problemlösungspotential einer verstärkten privaten Vorsorge. Daher wird anschließend untersucht, wie sich die Gewissheit von der Notwendigkeit kapitalgedeckter Vorsorge politisch durchsetzen konnte. Hierbei wird auf theoretische Ansätze einer Wissenssoziologie der Politik zurückgegriffen. Anhand ausgewählter rentenpolitischer Bundestagsdebatten der Jahre 1957 bis 2001 werden die Deutungen politischer Akteure hinsichtlich der Probleme der GRV, der Problemlösungen und der dabei vorgesehenen Rolle kapitalgedeckter Elemente untersucht. Gezeigt werden soll, dass die Rentenreform 2001 nicht einfach auf Grund demographischer oder ökonomischer Zwänge verstanden werden kann. Entscheidend sind vielmehr die politischen Deutungen solcher Sachverhalte und deren langfristiger Wandel. Erst aus der Verknüpfung von spezifischen Deutungen der langfristigen demographischen Entwicklung, der kurzfristigen Wirkung der Lohnnebenkosten auf die Arbeitslosigkeit und der Funktionsgrundlagen der GRV ergibt sich im politischen Prozess die „Notwendigkeit“ einer zusätzlichen privaten kapitalgedeckten Altersvorsorge.:Einleitung; Alterssicherung – demographische Alterung und Finanzierungsverfahren; Die Akteursebene – wissenssoziologische Grundlagen; Die Konstruktion eines demographischen Problems der GRV in Konkurrenz mit anderen Problemen; Die Bearbeitung des demographischen Problems bis zum RRG 1999; Die Rolle kapitalgedeckter Altersvorsorge; Resümee

The thesis presents a brand new concept of recurrent real estate tax in the Czech Republic. The object of the tax is designed to be exclusively land and apartments and non-residential premises. Buildings or any other aboveground or underground structures are not the object of taxation. Unlike buildings, land and apartments and non-residential premises can be appraised with sufficient accuracy only considering their quantity and location, hence by simply multiplying their areas and unit prices common in a given place and time. Consequently, the real estate tax can be designed on an ad valorem basis in order to differentiate between the tax liability of most lucrative, less lucrative and least lucrative property owners. As a result, tax collection can be substantially increased and a still marginal local tax can become a significant source of funds to the state treasury. At the same time, the increased recurrent tax on immovable property allows to abolish the economically questionable one-off tax in the Czech Republic, which is nowadays levied on the transfer of immovable property. The land tax is imposed on all land in the territory of the Country, with the exception of land built by apartment buildings and land used exclusively with them. The tax on apartments and non- residential premises falls on the...

The thesis 'The role of the Czech public media in the pension reform discourse' aims to provide a critical reflection on the role of the Czech Television and the Czech Radio in the debate over the changes in the pension scheme of the Czech Republic. The principal method used for that is the discourse analysis, which comprises quality and quantity analysis of the media output, interviews and personal observation. The research project focuses on the context the debate over the pension reform occurs and how it is presented in the public media. The theoretical part summarizes the theoretical concepts used in the research project, i.e. concepts from the field of public policy, social policy, mass communication and discourse analysis. The empirical part examines the institutional development of the pension reform, its variations in political, scholarly (Czech and international) and public discourse. The major part of the research project is based on the discourse analysis of the pension reform discourse in the Czech public media. The role of the public media in the pension reform discourse is deduced on the basis of the theoretical and empirical parts.

The present thesis focuses on the analysis of the Czech pension system reform. In order to understand the respective consequences, the analysis is put into the context of the development of the Czech pension system after 1989. In addition to the value aspect, attention is paid to the demographic, legislative, political, economic, social, institutional and international aspects of the pension system, its arrangement, financing and financial sustainability. The comparison of the pension reform implemented by the coalition government of Prime Minister Petr Nečas with the concept of pension reform of the opposition Czech Social Democratic Party by the criteria of budgetary responsibility, quality of life of pensioners, solidarity, social justice, equivalence and resilience of pension reform in time is also emphasised. Theoretical bases include the theory of path dependency, the theory of institutionalism, the welfare state theory, the theory of corporatism and the criterion anchoring of the reform. The present thesis applies the method of analysis of secondary data and the method of comparative analysis. To obtain secondary data, methods of document and data record searching are utilised.

Social security is an important part of the state social policy. The social security development depends upon many factors and their interaction and interpretation changes in historic context. Historic sources of social security development show a strong and urgent need of the state to deal with these questions. Chapter 1 contains a continual historical overview of social security in Czech Republic. The development of this important part of the state economy is closely connected to political and economical situation and the need of valid legal enactment implementation. The social security concept is inspired by proven models of other countries, especially Sweden. The basic system principles have to be respected simultaneously. Chapter 3 follows the fundamental problems which have been monitored since 2000. Their particular form is summed up in seven principal paragraphs. As the Czech Republic is now a part of the European economic space I find very important to treat the basic principles and objectives of social policy in European countries, however in general terms. Chapter 5 describes individual phases of the social security reform which have been put into effect in 2008 and also a concept which has been prepared for 2009