{
  "abstract": "Background Population ageing poses new social, political and economic challenges worldwide, bringing the issue of social pensions at the forefront of policy debates. Amidst rising financial and healthcare pressures in many countries, there is a need for evidence-based solutions to develop equitable pension systems that help support health and wellbeing in later life. Using German reunification as a unique natural experiment – involving major (exogenous) social transfers from West to East Germany – we aim to quantify the effect of increases in pension generosity on their capacity to reduce inequalities in self-reported measures of health and life satisfaction between East and West Germany.Methods Our data comes from a nationally representative German Socio-Economic Panel survey (GSEOP), covering a period of thirteen years post-reunification, from 1992 to 2005. The sample of our analysis includes a cohort of elderly retired individuals (aged 65 and over) at the time of reunification, resulting in a total 8,092 person-year observations. We use linear fixed effects models to quantify the within-person association between increasing pension income and health and life satisfaction in East vs. West Germany, controlling for age, marital status, and survey year. We also investigate if our results vary by sex and education level.Results We find a small but robust effect of increasing pension income on life satisfaction, such that for every 10% increase in pension income, life satisfaction increases by 0.02 points on a 0–10 scale [95% CI: 0.01;0.03] in East vs. West Germany, with effects stronger for men (0.04 [0.02;0.07] points) and those with above high school education level (0.05 [0.1;0.09] points). We find no effects on health satisfaction. Our results are robust to alternative model specifications using ordered logit models as well as when accounting for health-related attrition.Conclusion Our findings suggest that increasing pension generosity could be an effective policy tool for reducing geographical inequalities in wellbeing in later life. This needs to be considered in terms of future state pension policies, particularly in countries with regionally imbalanced economies.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Population Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Julija Simpson"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Population Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Viviana Albani"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Population Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Andrew Kingston"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Population Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Clare Bambra"
    }
  ],
  "title": "OP28 Higher pensions – better health? The effect of increasing pensions on self-reported health and life satisfaction in East vs. West Germany post reunification",
  "uid": "aac845dd-4fff-5493-bd25-e190274b77f6"
}