IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/12805.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Notional Defined Contribution Pension Systems in a Stochastic Context: Design and Stability

Author

Listed:
  • Alan J. Auerbach
  • Ronald Lee

Abstract

Around the world, Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) public pension programs face serious long-term fiscal problems due primarily to actual and projected population aging, and most appear unsustainable as currently structured. Some have proposed the replacement of such plans with systems of fully funded private or personal Defined Contribution (DC) accounts, but the difficulties of transition to funded systems have limited their implementation. Recently, a new variety of public pension program known as "Notional Defined Contribution" or "Non-financial Defined Contribution" (NDC) has been created, with the objectives of addressing the fiscal instability of traditional plans and mimicking the characteristics of funded DC plans while retaining PAYGO finance. Using different versions of the system recently adopted in Sweden, calibrated to US demographic and economic parameters, we evaluate the success of the NDC approach in achieving fiscal stability in a stochastic context. (In a companion paper, we will consider other aspects of the performance of NDC plans in comparison to traditional PAYGO pensions.) We find that the basic NDC scheme is effective at preventing excessive debt accumulation, but does little to prevent significant asset accumulation along many trajectories and on average. With adjustment, however, the NDC approach can be made more stable.

Suggested Citation

  • Alan J. Auerbach & Ronald Lee, 2006. "Notional Defined Contribution Pension Systems in a Stochastic Context: Design and Stability," NBER Working Papers 12805, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12805
    Note: AG PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12805.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ronald D. Lee & Michael W. Anderson & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2003. "Stochastic Forecasts of the Social Security Trust Fund," Working Papers wp043, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    2. repec:dau:papers:123456789/6478 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Booth, Heather, 2006. "Demographic forecasting: 1980 to 2005 in review," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 547-581.
    4. Lee, Ronald D., 1993. "Modeling and forecasting the time series of US fertility: Age distribution, range, and ultimate level," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 187-202, August.
    5. Ronald Lee & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 1998. "Stochastic Forecasts for Social Security," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in the Economics of Aging, pages 393-428, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Palmer, Edward, 2000. "The Swedish pension reform model : framework and issues," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 23086, The World Bank.
    7. Lee, Ronald & Tuljapurkar, Shripad, 1998. "Uncertain Demographic Futures and Social Security Finances," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 237-241, May.
    8. Florence Legros, 2003. "Notional Defined Contribution : a Comparison of the French and the German Point Systems," Working Papers 2003-14, CEPII research center.
    9. Valkonen, Tarmo, 2002. "Demographic Uncertainty and Taxes," Discussion Papers 816, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    10. Salvador Valdes‐Prieto, 2000. "The Financial Stability of Notional Account Pensions," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 102(3), pages 395-417, September.
    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. repec:cdl:econwp:qt37k785qq is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:cdl:oplwec:qt37k785qq is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Auerbach, Alan J. & Lee, Ronald, 2011. "Welfare and generational equity in sustainable unfunded pension systems," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 16-27.
    4. Börsch-Supan, Axel, 2003. "What are NDC Pension Systems? What Do They Bring to Reform Strategies?," MEA discussion paper series 03042, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    5. Lassila, Jukka & Valkonen, Tarmo & Alho, Juha M., 2014. "Demographic forecasts and fiscal policy rules," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 1098-1109.
    6. John B. Williamson & Matthew Williams, 2005. "Notional Defined Contribution Accounts," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 485-506, April.
    7. Michael Anderson & Hisashi Yamagata & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2001. "Stochastic Rates of Return for Social Security Under Various Policy Scenarios," Working Papers wp010, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    8. Börsch-Supan, Axel, 2004. "From Traditional DB to Notional DC Systems: Reframing PAYG contributions to "notional savings"," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 04-64, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    9. Yueqiang Zhao & Manying Bai & Peng Feng & Mengyuan Zhu, 2018. "Stochastic Assessments of Urban Employees’ Pension Plan of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-15, March.
    10. Lassila, Jukka & Valkonen, Tarmo & Alho, Juha M., 2011. "Fiscal sustainability and policy rules under changing demographic forecasts," Discussion Papers 1265, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    11. Cristina Rueda-Sabater & Pedro Alvarez-Esteban, 2008. "The analysis of age-specific fertility patterns via logistic models," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(9), pages 1053-1070.
    12. Arkadiusz Wiśniowski & Peter Smith & Jakub Bijak & James Raymer & Jonathan Forster, 2015. "Bayesian Population Forecasting: Extending the Lee-Carter Method," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 1035-1059, June.
    13. Ryan D. Edwards & Ronald D. Lee & Michael W. Anderson & Shripad Tuljapurkar & Carl Boe, 2003. "Key Equations in the Tuljapurkar-Lee Model of the Social Security System," Working Papers wp044, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    14. Wade D. Pfau & Vararat Atisophon, 2009. "Impact of the National Pension Fund on the Suitability of Elderly Pensions in Thailand," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 41-63, March.
    15. Friedrich Fritzer, 2004. "Financial Market Structure and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Perspective," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 2, pages 72-87.
    16. Christina Benita Wilke, 2008. "On the feasibility of notional defined contribution systems: The German case," MEA discussion paper series 08165, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    17. Denton, Frank T. & Gafni, Amiram & Spencer, Byron G., 2002. "Exploring the effects of population change on the costs of physician services," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 781-803, September.
    18. Carl Schmertmann & Emilio Zagheni & Joshua R. Goldstein & Mikko Myrskylä, 2014. "Bayesian Forecasting of Cohort Fertility," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 109(506), pages 500-513, June.
    19. Rueda, Cristina & Rodríguez, Pilar, 2010. "State space models for estimating and forecasting fertility," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 712-724, October.
    20. Ronald D. Lee & Michael W. Anderson & Shripad Tuljapurkar, 2003. "Stochastic Forecasts of the Social Security Trust Fund," Working Papers wp043, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    21. Börsch-Supan, A. & Härtl, K. & Leite, D.N., 2016. "Social Security and Public Insurance," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 781-863, Elsevier.
    22. Giang, Thanh Long & Pfau, Wade Donald, 2008. "Demographic Changes and Pension Finances in Vietnam," MPRA Paper 9931, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts

    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:nbr:nberwo:12805. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.