IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/fziddp/162010.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The welfare state evolves: German Knappschaften, 1854 - 1923

Author

Listed:
  • Jopp, Tobias Alexander

Abstract

This paper reviews the German miners' model of mutual insurance from its introduction in 1854 to its basic reformation in 1923. Its core feature was the provision of cash benefits for compensation of income losses due to temporary sickness and permanent invalidity or death of the bread-winner. The carriers of the insurance scheme, the Knappschaften, date back to medieval times, and the Knappschaft is still present today as the second pillar of the German statutory old-age insurance. This paper aims to establish the Knappschaft insurance's main characteristics in the period under consideration. These include, for example, compulsory membership, shared financing between employed miners and entrepreneurs, selfmanagement, financing based on earnings-related social insurance contributions, a strong emphasis of the insurance principle, and application of the pay-as-you-go mechanism. The organisational analysis is complemented quantitatively, on the one hand, by evidence on increasing generosity and, on the other hand, evidence on increasing financial distress substantiating the shadow side of a maturing pay-as-you-go based scheme. In particular, Knappschaften experienced all trends we commonly associate with today's systems in the second half of the 20th century as early as in the 19th century, even before the Bismarckian insurance was installed from 1883 on: Increasing social security spending, rising pensioners-tocontributors ratios, concentration and pressure on finances forcing Knappschaften to adjust their fiscal policy according to the mechanics of pay-as-you-go.

Suggested Citation

  • Jopp, Tobias Alexander, 2010. "The welfare state evolves: German Knappschaften, 1854 - 1923," FZID Discussion Papers 16-2010, University of Hohenheim, Center for Research on Innovation and Services (FZID).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:fziddp:162010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/33133/1/626811902.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guinnane, Timothy W. & Streb, Jochen, 2011. "Moral Hazard in a Mutual Health Insurance System: German Knappschaften, 1867–1914," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(1), pages 70-104, March.
    2. Khoudour-Castéras, David, 2008. "Welfare State and Labor Mobility: The Impact of Bismarck's Social Legislation on German Emigration before World War I," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(1), pages 211-243, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Timothy W. Guinnane & Jochen Streb, 2012. "Incentives that saved lives: Government regulation of accident insurance associations in Germany, 1884-1914," Working Papers 1013, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    2. Timothy Guinnane & Jochen Streb, 2012. "Incentives that Saved Lives: Government Regulation of Accident Insurance Associations in Germany, 1884–1914," Ruhr Economic Papers 0364, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    3. repec:zbw:rwirep:0364 is not listed on IDEAS

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Timothy W. Guinnane, 2011. "The Historical Fertility Transition: A Guide for Economists," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(3), pages 589-614, September.
    2. Guinnane, Timothy & Streb, Jochen, 2019. "Bismarck to no Effect: Fertility Decline and the Introduction of Social Insurance in Prussia," Working Papers 13, German Research Foundation's Priority Programme 1859 "Experience and Expectation. Historical Foundations of Economic Behaviour", Humboldt University Berlin.
    3. repec:zbw:rwirep:0364 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Stanfors, Maria & Karlsson, Tobias & Andersson, Lars-Fredrik & Eriksson, Liselotte, 2022. "Membership in Mutual Health Insurance Societies: The Case of Swedish Manufacturing, circa 1900," Lund Papers in Economic History 238, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    5. Razin, Assaf & Schwemmer, Alexander, 2020. "Ageing-Driven Migration and Redistribution: Comparing Policy Regimes," CEPR Discussion Papers 14574, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Timothy J. Hatton, 2010. "The Cliometrics Of International Migration: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 941-969, December.
    7. Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle H. & Streb, Jochen, 2016. "Does Social Security Crowd Out Private Savings? The Case of Bismarck’s System of Social Insurance," Working Papers 1, German Research Foundation's Priority Programme 1859 "Experience and Expectation. Historical Foundations of Economic Behaviour", Humboldt University Berlin.
    8. Assaf Razin & Efraim Sadka, 2014. "Migration and Welfare State: Why is America Different from Europe?," NBER Working Papers 20450, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Assaf Razin, 2013. "MIGRATION into the WELFARE STATE: tax and migration competition," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 20(4), pages 548-563, August.
    10. Timothy Guinnane & Jochen Streb, 2012. "Incentives that Saved Lives: Government Regulation of Accident Insurance Associations in Germany, 1884–1914," Ruhr Economic Papers 0364, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    11. Jopp, Tobias Alexander, 2011. "Old Times, Better Times? German Miners' Knappschaften, Pay-as-you-go Pensions, and Implicit Rates of Return, 1854–1913," Ruhr Economic Papers 238, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    12. Felix Kersting, 2022. "Welfare Reform and Repression in an Autocracy: Bismarck and the Socialists," Working Papers 0227, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    13. Timothy W. Guinnane & Susana Martinez Rodriguez, 2012. "For Every Law, a Loophole: Flexibility in the Menu of Spanish Business Forms, 1886-1936," Working Papers 1012, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    14. Maria Stanfors & Tobias Karlsson & Lars‐Fredrik Andersson & Liselotte Eriksson, 2024. "Between voluntarism and compulsion: Membership in mutual health insurance societies in Swedish manufacturing, c. 1900," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(1), pages 244-267, February.
    15. Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle & Streb, Jochen, 2017. "Does Social Security crowd out Private Savings? The Case of Bismarck’s System of Social Insurance," IBF Paper Series 06-17, IBF – Institut für Bank- und Finanzgeschichte / Institute for Banking and Financial History, Frankfurt am Main.
    16. Catarina Goulão & Luca Panaccione, 2015. "Pooling promises with moral hazard," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(1), pages 460-465.
    17. Elisabeth Bublitz & Michael Wyrwich, 2018. "Technological change and labor market integration," Jena Economics Research Papers 2018-008, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    18. Lars Fredrik Andersson & Liselotte Eriksson, 2016. "Voluntary or compulsory? Exploring dynamics of mutual cooperative formation in Swedish health insurance at the turn of the twentieth century," Working Papers 16007, Economic History Society.
    19. Tobias A. Jopp, 2011. "Old Times, Better Times? German Miners’ Knappschaften, Pay-as-you-go Pensions, and Implicit Rates of Return, 1854–1913," Ruhr Economic Papers 0238, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    20. Timothy W. Guinnane & Jochen Streb, 2012. "Incentives that saved lives: Government regulation of accident insurance associations in Germany, 1884-1914," Working Papers 1013, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    21. Timothy W. Guinnane & Jochen Streb, 2021. "The Introduction of Bismarck's Social Security System and its Effects on Marriage and Fertility in Prussia," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(3), pages 749-780, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bismarck; mining; pay-as-you-go; social security; welfare state;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:fziddp:162010. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fihohde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.