SHARING PROSPERITY ACROSS THE AGE DISTRIBUTION - A COMPARISON OF THE UNITED-STATES AND GERMANY IN THE 1980S

Using six waves of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and th e German Socio-Economic Panel we compare the relative economic well-be ing of Americans and Germans in the 1980s. Economic growth during the 1980s substantially improved the economic well-being of the average pe rson in both the United States and Germany. But the rewards were dispr oportionately distributed across age and gender. In both countries, th e family incomes of the very old, the very young and women were lower and grew more slowly than did the income of other families. Social sec urity policy in Germany was more successful than American policy in pr oviding income security in old age. But, despite massive social securi ty programs in both countries, older women were still the most vulnera ble members of society, in part because of a substantial drop in the l evel of social insurance they received following the death of their sp ouse.