Public Pension Reform, Demographics, and Inequality

Robert K von Weizsäcker

No 978, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Starting from a simple, descriptive model of individual income, an explicit link between the age composition of a population and the personal distribution of incomes is established. Demographic effects on income inequality are derived. Next, a pay-as-you-go financed state pension system is introduced. The resulting government budget constraint entails interrelations between fiscal and demographic variables, causing an additional, indirect demographic impact on the distribution. This is shown not only to change, but in some cases even to reverse the distributional incidence of an aging population. Several policy conflicts arise. The point is reemphasized by an analysis of the German Pension Reform Act of 1992. The study reveals that the design of the pension formula decisively drives the relation between demographics and inequality.

Keywords: Fiscal-Demographic Policy Conflicts; Income Distribution; Old-Age Insurance Reform; Population Aging; Social Policy Design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 H55 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1994-06
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