IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fgv/epgewp/851.html

Optimal risk sharing and incentive provision in social security systems

Author

Listed:
  • Costa, Carlos Eugênio da
  • Berriel, Rafael

Abstract

Should workers or retirees bear the risk of economic growth? We show that efficient risk-sharing depends on how incentive provision – through consumption dispersion – affects the marginal value of resources, and how retirement promises back-load incentive provision. We use statistics for these two forces to show that perfect risk-sharing is optimal when the utility from consumption is logarithmic or when aggregate productivity growth is i.i.d. When neither condition holds, deviations from perfect risk sharing increase welfare. These deviations are, however, small due to the failure of a consumption-based stochastic discount factor (SDF) to price consumption growth. An augmented model that matches asset price behavior yields quantitatively relevant deviations from perfect risk-sharing.

Suggested Citation

  • Costa, Carlos Eugênio da & Berriel, Rafael, 2026. "Optimal risk sharing and incentive provision in social security systems," FGV EPGE Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 851, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil).
    • Handle: RePEc:fgv:epgewp:851
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repositorio.fgv.br/bitstreams/22e9ba2a-8bb8-43fe-8561-29f947b7376f/download
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gottardi, Piero & Kubler, Felix, 2011. "Social security and risk sharing," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 1078-1106, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items 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. De Menil, Georges & Murtin, Fabrice & Sheshinski, Eytan & Yokossi, Tite, 2016. "A rational, economic model of paygo tax rates," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 55-72.
    2. Metzger, Christoph, 2016. "The German statutory pension scheme: Balance sheet, cross-sectional internal rates of return and implicit tax rates," FZG Discussion Papers 63, University of Freiburg, Research Center for Generational Contracts (FZG).
    3. Gottardi, Piero & Kubler, Felix, 2011. "Social security and risk sharing," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(3), pages 1078-1106, May.
    4. Roel M. W. J. Beetsma & Ward E. Romp & Siert J. Vos, 2013. "Intergenerational Risk Sharing, Pensions, and Endogenous Labour Supply in General Equilibrium," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 115(1), pages 141-154, January.
    5. Eugeni, Sara, 2024. "Nominal exchange rates and net foreign assets' dynamics: The stabilization role of valuation effects," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    6. D'Amato, Marcello & Galasso, Vincenzo, 2010. "Political intergenerational risk sharing," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(9-10), pages 628-637, October.
    7. Romp, Ward & Beetsma, Roel, 2020. "Sustainability of pension systems with voluntary participation," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 125-140.
    8. Roel Beetsma & Ward Romp, 2013. "Participation Constraints in Pension Systems," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-149/VI, Tinbergen Institute.
    9. Roozbeh Hosseini, 2015. "Adverse Selection in the Annuity Market and the Role for Social Security," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(4), pages 941-984.
    10. Broeders, Dirk & Mehlkopf, Roel & van Ool, Annick, 2021. "The economics of sharing macro-longevity risk," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 440-458.
    11. Beetsma, Roel M.W.J. & Romp, Ward E. & Vos, Siert J., 2012. "Voluntary participation and intergenerational risk sharing in a funded pension system," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1310-1324.
    12. Shiguang Peng & Le Wang, 2025. "Does Participation in Social Security Increase Chinese Farmers’ Willingness of Homestead Withdrawal?," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-19, February.
    13. Carsten Krabbe Nielsen, 2009. "Rational Overconfidence and Social Security," Discussion Paper Series 0916, Institute of Economic Research, Korea University.
    14. Roel M. W. J. Beetsma & A. Lans Bovenberg, 2009. "Pensions and Intergenerational Risk‐sharing in General Equilibrium," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(302), pages 364-386, April.
    15. R. Beetsma & A. L. Bovenberg, 2006. "Pension systems, intergenerational risk sharing and inflation," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 257, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    16. Alexander Ludwig & Michael Reiter, 2008. "Sharing Demographic Risk – Who is Afraid of the Baby Bust?," MEA discussion paper series 08166, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    17. Ohtaki, Eisei, 2013. "Golden rule optimality in stochastic OLG economies," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 60-66.
    18. Devis Geron, 2009. "Social Security Incidence under Uncertainty Assessing Italian Reforms," CESifo Working Paper Series 2812, CESifo.
    19. Gollier, Christian, 2008. "Intergenerational risk-sharing and risk-taking of a pension fund," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1463-1485, June.
    20. Eisei Ohtaki & Hiroyuki Ozaki, 2014. "Optimality in a Stochastic OLG Model with Ambiguity," Working Papers e069, Tokyo Center for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:fgv:epgewp:851. 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: Núcleo de Computação da FGV EPGE (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/epgvfbr.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.