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Political (in)stability of social security reform

Author

Listed:
  • Krzysztof Makarski

    (Group for Research in Applied Economics (GRAPE)
    Warsaw School of Economics
    Narodowy Bank Polski)

  • Joanna Tyrowicz

    (Group for Research in Applied Economics (GRAPE)
    University of Warsaw
    Institut für Arbeitsrecht und Arbeitsbeziehungen in der Europäischen Union (IAAEU)
    Institute of Labor Economics (IZA))

Abstract

We analyze the political stability social security reforms which introduce a funded pillar (a.k.a. privatizations). We consider an economy populated by overlapping generations, which introduces a funded pillar. This reform is efficient in Kaldor-Hicks sense and has political support. Subsequently, agents vote on abolishing the funded system and replacing it with the pay-as-you-go scheme, i.e. “unprivatizing” the pension system. We show that even if abolishing the system reduces welfare in the long run, the distribution of benefits across cohorts along the transition path implies that “unprivatizing” social security is always politically favored. This suggests that property rights definition over retirement savings may be of crucial importance for determining the stability of retirement systems with a funded pillar.

Suggested Citation

  • Krzysztof Makarski & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2017. "Political (in)stability of social security reform," GRAPE Working Papers 14, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:fme:wpaper:14
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    majority voting; pension system reform; welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models
    • E17 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • E27 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications

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