Alternative Retirement Income Arrangements and Lifetime Income Inequality: Lessons From Australia

M. Atkinson, John Creedy and David Knox

International Tax and Public Finance, 1999, vol. 6, issue 1, 103-117

Abstract: This paper examines the implications for lifetime income equality of alternative retirement income arrangements, using the Australian scheme as a benchmark. In Australia, the pay-as-you go financed age pension is means-tested and thereby provides a contrast with those countries where part or all of a basic pension is paid to all aged persons. Many governments are considering an increase in the level of means-testing. The results show that the introduction of a universal pension coupled with significant changes and simplifications to the structure of taxation and superannuation have little effect on the redistributive impact of the tax structure in a life cycle framework. The presence of means-testing appears to have no significant effect on life-time inequality. The results suggest that it is possible to eliminate complexities from the system providing retirement benefits without having any deleterious effect on equity. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 1999

Keywords: retirement; pensions; means-testing; inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1023/A:1008604121778

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