Income Inequality, Poverty and the Impact of the Pension Reform

Maria Andreou and Panos Pashardes
Additional contact information
Maria Andreou: Economics Research Centre, University of Cyprus

Cyprus Economic Policy Review, 2009, vol. 3, issue 2, 41-55

Abstract: This paper examines income inequality and poverty in Cyprus vis-a-vis the European Union (EU) and investigates how these are affected by the recently implemented pension reform. The empirical investigation is conducted using individual household data drawn from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC, 2007). Income inequality and poverty in Cyprus is close to the EU average. Our estimates suggest that the pension reform decreases income inequality - the Gini coefficient and the S80/S20 ratio are decreased by 1 and 0,4 percentage units, respectively. Furthermore, the poverty rate is estimated to decrease by 1,3 percentage units. In conclusion, the pension reform is adequately targeted and leads to socially desirable results but potentially harmful side effects (higher fiscal deficit, reduced voluntary contributions to pension funds and labour market participation) need to be addressed.

Keywords: Income inequality; poverty; pension reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ucy.ac.cy/erc/documents/Andreou_Pashardes_Full_Text.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:erc:cypepr:v:3:y:2009:i:2:p:41-55

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this article

Cyprus Economic Policy Review is currently edited by Prof. Elena Andreou

More articles in Cyprus Economic Policy Review from University of Cyprus, Economics Research Centre Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Vasiliki Bozani ().