Intergenerational Redistribution

Peter Howitt

Chapter 13 in Economic Theory, Welfare and the State, 1990, pp 218-237 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Jack Weldon’s theory of intergenerational transfers was a contribution of the first order to economic theory.2 He took as his starting-point Lerner’s (1959) observation that public pensions and other programmes with an impact on intergenerational distribution are not saving plans but rather plans for reallocating the resources currently available between the generations currently alive. Given a realistic amount of uncertainty and ignorance about what will happen over a horizon of thirty years or more, no one can tell what retirement benefits the current young will enjoy. But the programmes now in effect will directly determine how much they must contribute and how much the current old will benefit.

Keywords: Social Welfare Function; Public Pension; Pension Benefit; Intergenerational Transfer; Lifetime Utility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-10911-1_13

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-10911-1_13

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