Sparfähigkeit und Vorsorge gegenüber sozialen Risiken bei Selbständigen: Einige Informationen auf der Basis der Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichprobe 1998

The aim of the paper is to analyse the ability of persons or households, with earnings mainly out of independent work, to save money and to look on the specific kind of provisions they have made against so called social risks. To characterise the ability to save, the income and wealth distribution of households with a self−employed head are determined. For this and for judging the type of the household or the household situation has to be taken into account. This is to be done on the basis of a scientific use file of the Income and Expenditure Survey (IES ’98) of the Federal Statistical Office Germany of the year 1998. The result on the basis of the cross section analysis is cum grano salis, that on average the ability of households with a self−employed head to save money does not much differs from that of the households with employed heads. Furthermore it becomes obvious, that the IES ’98 is only partly suitable to analyse the provisions of private households against social risks. Nevertheless it is possible to gain some evidence on the heterogeneity of the group of self−employed households concerning the provisions against a loss of income and / or an additional financial burden in consequence of the occurrence of a general risk of life. So nearly all persons do have a health insurance, a long term care insurance, and around 84.7 % have an old age security. Further it has to be taken into account, that the possibility of provision against a phase without income due to the lack of orders or against insolvency does not exist.