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Social Security in an Analytically Tractable Overlapping Generations Model with Aggregate and Idiosyncratic Risk

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Abstract

When markets are incomplete, social security can partially insure against idiosyncratic and aggregate risks. We incorporate both risks into an analytically tractable model with two overlapping generations and demonstrate that they interact over the life-cycle. The interactions appear even though the two risks are orthogonal and they amplify the welfare consequences of introducing social security. On the one hand, the interactions increase the welfare benefits from insurance. On the other hand, they can in- or decrease the welfare costs from crowding out of capital formation. This ambiguous effect on crowding out means that the net effect of these two channels is positive, hence the interactions of risks increase the total welfare benefits of social security.

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  • Daniel Harenberg & Alexander Ludwig, 2014. "Social Security in an Analytically Tractable Overlapping Generations Model with Aggregate and Idiosyncratic Risk," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 14/204, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:eth:wpswif:14-204
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    Cited by:

    1. Oliwia Komada & Krzysztof Makarski & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2017. "Welfare effects of fiscal policy in reforming the pension system," GRAPE Working Papers 11, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    2. Daniel Harenberg & Alexander Ludwig, "undated". "Social Security and the Interactions Between Aggregate and Idiosyncratic Risk," Working Papers ETH-RC-14-002, ETH Zurich, Chair of Systems Design.
    3. Krueger, Dirk & Ludwig, Alexander, 2018. "Optimal Taxes on Capital in the OLG Model with Uninsurable Idiosyncratic Income Risk," MEA discussion paper series 201802, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    4. Anna Batyra & David de la Croix & Olivier Pierrard & Henri Sneessens, 2016. "Structural changes in the labor market and the rise of early retirement in Europe," CREA Discussion Paper Series 16-13, Center for Research in Economic Analysis, University of Luxembourg.
    5. Krueger, Dirk & Ludwig, Alexander, 2018. "Optimal taxes on capital in the OLG model with uninsurable idiosyncratic income risk," SAFE Working Paper Series 201, Research Center SAFE - Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe, Goethe University Frankfurt.
    6. Daniel Harenberg & Ludwig, Alexander, 2015. "Idiosyncratic Risk, Aggregate Risk, and the Welfare Effects of Social Security," MEA discussion paper series 201403, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    7. Dirk Krueger & Alexander Ludwig, 2018. "Optimal Taxes on Capital in the OLG Model with Uninsurable Idiosyncratic Income Risk," PIER Working Paper Archive 18-004, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 09 Feb 2018.
    8. Krueger, Dirk & Ludwig, Alexander, 2018. "Optimal taxes on capital in the OLG model with uninsurable idiosyncratic income risk," ZEW Discussion Papers 18-014, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research.
    9. Bommier, Antoine & Harenberg, Daniel & Le Grand, François, 2017. "Household Finance and the Value of Life," Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168189, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    social security; idiosyncratic risk; aggregate risk; welfare; insurance; crowding out;

    JEL classification:

    • C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models
    • E27 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions

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