The Macroeconomics of Ageing, Pensions and Savings: A Survey

Richard Kohl and Paul O'Brien ()

No 200, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: The effect of pension systems on public and private saving is important - savings are a crucial link between decisions today and living standards tomorrow. This paper, following a brief overview of pension systems in some OECD countries, reviews the empirical literature. Two important questions are: do unfunded public pension schemes reduce national saving? Do tax-favoured private saving schemes increase national saving? Quantitative estimates are highly uncertain, but the answers appear to be, "yes, by up 30 per cent of the funding gap"; and "yes, but often not by very much when the fiscal effects are considered." ... L'impact des systèmes de retraite sur l'épargne public et privée est important -- l'épargne établit un lien essentiel entre le comportement d'aujourd'hui et le niveau de vie de demain. Après un rapide suivi des systèmes de pensions dans certains pays de l'OCDE, cet article passe en revue la littérature empirique. Deux questions fondamentales se présentent : le taux d'épargne national est-il diminué par un système de pensions par répartition (sans fonds) ? Les comptes d'épargne bénéficiant d'avantages fiscaux, augmentent-t-ils ce taux national d'épargne ? Il est très difficile de quantifier, mais les réponses semblent être : "oui, jusqu'à l'équivalent de 30 pour cent de la dette implicite" ; et "oui, mais souvent peu sensiblement compte tenu des effets fiscaux." ...

Date: 1998-06-23
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