The Measurement of Augmented Wealth: Concepts, Methods and Results

Workshop

Workshop

Hybrid online and in-person event at
Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Otto-Wagner-Platz 3, 1090 Vienna, Austria

Friday, 3 March 2023 | Start: 09:00 AM | End: 05:00 PM CET 

Abstract

Measures of net worth, as they are used for the analysis of large household surveys like the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), are typically defined as the sum of financial and real assets minus the value of outstanding debt. This concept is based on a definition of “marketable wealth” as has been proposed by the OECD and other institutions. The recent years have, however, shown an increasing interest in the notion of “augmented wealth”, i.e. a concept of wealth that also includes the present value of other, nonmarketable private or public entitlements. This refers, in particular, to the value of public pension entitlements (sometimes called “social security wealth”), but potentially also to other elements like the entitlements to future health care benefits in the context of an income-based public health insurance system or the implicit subsidies due to social housing programs. The existence of these additional components of augmented wealth is likely to have an important impact on crucial economic decisions like saving, labor supply, and retirement. The aim of this workshop is to bring together leading researchers in this field in order to discuss the methods for constructing augmented wealth, to compare existing findings and to talk about challenges and open practical and conceptual issues.

Program

9:00 AM

 

Opening address
Robert Holzmann
Governor
Oesterreichische Nationalbank

10:00 AM

 

Session 1: Methods, Concepts, Context

Private wealth in economics and the economy - a refleciton on concepts and methods

Pirmin Fessler
Oesterreichische Nationalbank

Discussant  
Martin Schürz
Oesterreichische Nationalbank

10:45 AM

Coffee Break

11:00 AM

Session 2: The Inclusion of Pension Entitlements

Methods for augmenting traditional wealth surveys by specific questions, statistical matching or links to administrative data: The German experience

Carsten Schröder
DIW, Berlin

Discussant
Pirmin Fessler
Oesterreichische Nationalbank

11:45 AM

The impact of the public pension system on wealth inequality. The distribution of augmented wealth in Poland

Marcin Wronski
Warsaw School of Economics

Discussant
Markus Knell
Oesterreichische Nationalbank

12:30 PM

Lunch

1:30 PM

Session 3: The Inclusion of Public Health Insurance

Distributional implications of the public health system in Austria

Thomas Leoni
University of Applied Sciences, Wiener Neustadt

Discussant
Maria Hofmarcher
HealthSystemIntelligence

2:15 PM

Coffee Break

2:30 PM

Health insurance and the wealth distribution

Reinhard Koman
Oesterreichische Nationalbank

Discussant

Martin Spielauer
Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)

3:15 PM

Coffee Break

3:30 PM

Session 4: The Inclusion of Social Housing

Housing policy and the distribution of wealth: A comparative perspective on public and private wealth

Severin Rapp
Vienna University of Economics and Business

Discussant
Peter Lindner
Oesterreichische Nationalbank

4:15 PM

Housing and wealth inequality: A story of policy trade-offs

Orsetta Causa
OECD

Discussant
Paul Pichler
University of Vienna

5:00 PM

End of workshop