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Internationally Common Features of Public Old-Age Pensions, and Their Implications for Models of the Public Sector

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Author Info

  • Casey B. Mulligan

    (University of Chicago)

  • Xavier Sala-i-Martin

    (Columbia University)

Abstract

What does the international history of old-age Social Security program design say about the forces creating and sustaining it as a public program? First, because many program features are internationally common, and/or explained by country characteristics, SS may emerge and grow due to systematic political and economic forces. Second, some observations suggest that political forces are important: (a) SS redistributes from young to old, even when the elderly consume as much or more than do the young, and (b) benefits increase with lifetime earnings and are hardly means-tested. On the other hand, it is not simply a matter of the elderly out-voting the young, because: (c) benefit formulas induce retirement, especially in the countries with the largest SS budgets, and (d) similar public pension programs emerge and grow under very different political regimes. We explain how empirical observations, and some currently unanswered empirical questions, relate to various public pension theories.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by De Gruyter in its journal The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy.

Volume (Year): advances.4 (2004)
Issue (Month): 1 ()
Pages: 4

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Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:advances.4:y:2004:i:1:n:4

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Web page: http://www.degruyter.com

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Related research

Keywords: Social Security; Pensions; Elderly; Retirement; Political Economics;

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Gonzalez-Eiras, Martin & Niepelt, Dirk, 2007. "Population Ageing, Government Budgets, and Productivity Growth in Politico-Economic Equilibrium," CEPR Discussion Papers 6581, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  2. Perotti, Enrico C & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2007. "The Political Origin of Pension Funding," CEPR Discussion Papers 6100, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  3. Marco Bassetto, 1999. "Political economy of taxation in an overlapping-generations economy," Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics 133, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
  4. Lawrence Kenny & Stanley Winer, 2006. "Tax Systems in the World: An Empirical Investigation into the Importance of Tax Bases, Administration Costs, Scale and Political Regime," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 181-215, May.
  5. Koethenbuerger, Marko & Poutvaara, Panu & Profeta, Paola, 2005. "Why Are More Redistributive Social Security Systems Smaller? A Median Voter Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 1831, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  6. J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz & Paola Profeta, 2007. "The Redistributive Design of Social Security Systems," Working Papers 2007-07, FEDEA.
  7. Song Han & Casey B. Mulligan, 2002. "Inflation and the size of government," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2002-1, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  8. Martin Gonzalez-Eiras & Dirk Niepelt, 2007. "The Future of Social Security," Working Papers 07.02, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
  9. Dirk Niepelt & Martin Gonzalez-Eiras, 2007. "Sustaining Social Security," 2007 Meeting Papers 95, Society for Economic Dynamics.

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