IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/iza/izawol/journly2015n172.html

Are social security programs progressive?

Author

Listed:
  • Alvaro Forteza

    (Universidad de la República Uruguay)

Abstract

Social security programs generally seek to provide insurance and to reduce poverty and inequality. Providing insurance requires little redistribution. But reducing inequality and alleviating poverty do require redistribution. To reduce inequality, programs must redistribute income, but redistributing income is not the same as reducing inequality. While some programs redistribute large amounts of income without noticeably reducing inequality, others reduce inequality with less redistribution and fewer labor market distortions. A non-contributory tier, which provides benefits without requiring contributions, is a key component for reducing inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Alvaro Forteza, 2015. "Are social security programs progressive?," World of Labour, LISER, pages 172-172, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:y:2015:n:172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wol.iza.org/articles/are-social-security-programs-progressive-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://wol.iza.org/articles/are-social-security-programs-progressive
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gustman, Alan L. & Steinmeier, Thomas L., 2001. "How effective is redistribution under the social security benefit formula?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 1-28, October.
    2. Alvaro Foteza & Ignacio Apella & Eduardo Fajnzylber & Carlos Grushka & Ianina Rossi & Graciela Sanromán, 2011. "Contributions to social security in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay: Densities, transitions and duration," Económica, Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, vol. 0, pages 127-163, January-D.
    3. repec:wbk:wbpubs:2651 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:wbk:wbpubs:7336 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Alvaro Forteza & Irene Mussio, 2012. "Assessing Redistribution in the Uruguayan Social Security System," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 21(1), pages 65-87, March.
    6. Forteza, Alvaro & Ourens, Guzmán, 2012. "Redistribution, insurance and incentives to work in Latin-American pension programs," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(3), pages 337-364, July.
    7. Alvaro Forteza, 2011. "Assessing Redistribution within Social Insurance Systems.The cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 1311, Department of Economics - dECON.
    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. Palacios, Robert & Robalino, David A., 2020. "Integrating Social Insurance and Social Assistance Programs for the Future World of Labor," IZA Discussion Papers 13258, IZA Network @ LISER.

    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. Alvaro Forteza & Irene Mussio, 2012. "Assessing Redistribution in the Uruguayan Social Security System," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 21(1), pages 65-87, March.
    2. Alvaro Forteza, 2011. "Assessing Redistribution within Social Insurance Systems.The cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 1311, Department of Economics - dECON.
    3. Pedro Moncarz, 2015. "Implicit redistribution within Argentina’s social security system: a micro-simulation exercise," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 24(1), pages 1-35, December.
    4. Altamirano, Alvaro & Oliveri, María Laura & Bosch, Mariano & Tapia, Waldo, 2023. "Calculating the redistributive impact of pension systems in LAC," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120684, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Alvaro Forteza & Diego Tuzman, 2024. "The redistributive effect of pensions. The case of Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0924, Department of Economics - dECON.
    6. Jeffrey R. Brown & Julia Lynn Coronado & Don Fullerton, 2009. "Is Social Security Part of the Social Safety Net?," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 23, pages 37-72, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Jeffrey B. Liebman, 2002. "Redistribution in the Current U.S. Social Security System," NBER Chapters, in: The Distributional Aspects of Social Security and Social Security Reform, pages 11-48, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Li, Qianqian & Zhao, Zhengtang & Chen, Tingting, 2024. "The effect of public pension insurance integration on income disparities between urban-rural households: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. A. Bovenberg & Martin Hansen & Peter Sørensen, 2008. "Individual savings accounts for social insurance: rationale and alternative designs," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 15(1), pages 67-86, February.
    10. Tim Krieger & Christine Meemann & Stefan Traub, 2022. "Inequality, Life Expectancy, and the Intragenerational Redistribution Puzzle - Some Experimental Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 9677, CESifo.
    11. Afonso, Luís Eduardo & Fernandes, Reynaldo, 2005. "Uma Estimativa dos Aspectos Distributivos da Previdência Social no Brasil," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 59(3), July.
    12. Laun, Tobias & Markussen, Simen & Vigtel, Trond Christian & Wallenius, Johanna, 2018. "Health, Longevity and Pension Reform," Working Paper Series 2018:9, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    13. Alan L. Gustman & Thomas L. Steinmeier & Nahid Tabatabai, 2011. "The Effects of Changes in Women’s Labor Market Attachment on Redistribution Under the Social Security Benefit Formula," Working Papers wp248, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    14. Coronado Julia Lynn & Fullerton Don & Glass Thomas, 2011. "The Progressivity of Social Security," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-45, November.
    15. Alan J. Auerbach & Kerwin K. Charles & Courtney C. Coile & William Gale & Dana Goldman & Ronald Lee & Charles M. Lucas & Peter R. Orszag & Louise M. Sheiner & Bryan Tysinger & David N. Weil & Justin W, 2017. "How the Growing Gap in Life Expectancy May Affect Retirement Benefits and Reforms," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 42(3), pages 475-499, July.
    16. Cristobal Ridao-Cano & Dalal Moosa & Montserrat Pallares-Miralles & Juul Pinxten, 2023. "Built to Include [Conçue pour inclure]," World Bank Publications - Reports 40227, The World Bank Group.
    17. Alan L. Gustman & Thomas L. Steinmeier & Nahid Tabatabai, 2013. "The Social Security Windfall Elimination and Government Pension Offset Provisions for Public Employees in the Health and Retirement Study," Working Papers wp288, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    18. Eduardo Fajnzylber, 2012. "Implicit redistribution in the Chilean Social Insurance System," Working Papers wp_019, Adolfo Ibáñez University, School of Government.
    19. Eytan Sheshinski & Frank N. Caliendo, 2021. "Social Security and the increasing longevity gap," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(1), pages 29-52, February.
    20. Bertranou, Fabio & Cetrángolo, Oscar & Grushka, Oscar & Casanova, Luis, 2012. "Beyond the privatization and re-nationalisation of the Argentine pension system: coverage, fragmentation, and sustainability," MPRA Paper 44245, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

    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:iza:izawol:journl:y:2015:n:172. 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: Olga Nottmeyer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.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.