Poverty among the elderly: the role of public pension systems

Philippe Jacques, Marie-Louise Leroux and Dalibor Stevanovic
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Philippe Jacques: StatLog Inc.

International Tax and Public Finance, 2021, vol. 28, issue 1, No 2, 24-67

Abstract: Abstract The objective of this paper is to measure the impact of first-pillar public pensions spending on the prevalence of poverty among the elderly. Using data from 27 European countries from 1995 to 2014, we estimate the elasticity of the poverty rate among individuals aged over 65 years to per capita public pensions spending. We show the existence of a nonlinear relationship between these two variables. The elasticity is negative and statistically different from 0 only beyond a level of spending of 685€ per capita. At the average value of 2819€, it is estimated that the elasticity is around − 1.45. This nonlinear relationship is robust to the treatment of possible endogeneity and to different robustness checks like the variation of the poverty line as well as to the inclusion of country-specific differences in public pension plans.

Keywords: Ageing; Poverty; Income inequalities; Public pension systems; Panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H55 I32 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Working Paper: Poverty among the elderly: The role of public pension systems (2018)
Working Paper: Poverty Among the Elderly: The Role of Public Pension Systems (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:28:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s10797-020-09617-2

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DOI: 10.1007/s10797-020-09617-2

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