Greying the Budget: Ageing and Preferences over Public Policies

Luiz de Mello, Simone Schotte (), Erwin R. Tiongson () and Hernan Winkler
Additional contact information
Simone Schotte: UNU-WIDER
Erwin R. Tiongson: Georgetown University

No 9681, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper looks at how individual preferences for the allocation of government spending change along the life cycle. Using the Life in Transition Survey II for 34 countries of Europe and Central Asia, we find that older individuals are less likely to support a rise in government outlays on education and more likely to support increases in spending on pensions. These results are very similar across countries, and they do not change when using alternative model specifications, estimation methods and data sources. Using repeated cross-sections, we control for cohort effects and confirm our main results. Our findings are consistent with a body of literature arguing that conflict across generations over the allocation of public expenditures may intensify in ageing economies.

Keywords: cohort effects; public spending; ageing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H3 H5 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2016-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-pbe and nep-sea
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - published in: Kyklos, 2017, 70 (1), 70-96

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Related works:
Journal Article: Greying the Budget: Ageing and Preferences over Public Policies (2017)
Working Paper: Greying the budget: ageing and preferences over public policies (2016)
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