Socio-Economic Differences in Mortality: Implications for Pensions Policy

Edward Whitehouse () and Asghar Zaidi

No 71, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: The analyses included in the report show that there are big socio-economic differences in mortality, especially for men, and they appear to have become bigger over time. The report discusses implications of mortality differentials for five major areas of pension policy: the progressivity of the pension system, the pension eligibility age, the retirement incentives, future pension expenditures and private pensions. The empirical work shows that the mortality differentials reduce progressivity in pension systems. Moreover, there is empirical evidence that raising retirement age is not more unfair to socio-economic groups with lower life expectancy. Les analyses présentées ici montrent qu’il existe de fortes différences socioéconomiques en termes de mortalité, surtout chez les hommes, et qu’elles se sont apparemment accentuées au fil du temps. Ce document examine les conséquences des écarts de mortalité pour cinq grands aspects de la politique de retraite : la progressivité du système de retraite, l’âge d’ouverture des droits à pension, les incitations à la retraite, les dépenses de retraite futures et les pensions privées. Les travaux empiriques font apparaître que les écarts de mortalité réduisent la progressivité des régimes de retraite. De plus, des données d’observation montrent que le relèvement de l’âge de la retraite n’est pas plus pénalisant pour les catégories socioéconomiques ayant une espérance de vie plus courte.

JEL-codes: H55 I1 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-12-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hap and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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