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Means-testing and economic efficiency in pension design

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  • Fehr, Hans
  • Uhde, Johannes

Abstract

The present paper studies the efficiency properties of means-tested pay-as-you-go financed social security systems. Starting from a benchmark economy without social security, we introduce pension systems of various institutional designs and compare the costs arising from liquidity constraints as well as distortions of labor supply and the accumulation of savings versus the benefits from insurance provision against income uncertainty and mortality risk. We find a positive role of means-testing pension benefits against private assets from a long run welfare perspective. However, when taking transitional cohorts into account, our findings highlight strong aggregate efficiency losses.

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  • Fehr, Hans & Uhde, Johannes, 2014. "Means-testing and economic efficiency in pension design," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(S1), pages 57-67.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:44:y:2014:i:s1:p:s57-s67
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2014.01.031
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    3. Tim Krieger & Christine Meemann & Stefan Traub, 2022. "Inequality, Life Expectancy, and the Intragenerational Redistribution Puzzle - Some Experimental Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 9677, CESifo.
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    5. Börsch-Supan, A. & Härtl, K. & Leite, D.N., 2016. "Social Security and Public Insurance," Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, in: Piggott, John & Woodland, Alan (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Population Aging, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 781-863, Elsevier.
    6. Kudrna, George, 2016. "Economy-wide effects of means-tested pensions: The case of Australia," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 17-29.
    7. Julien, Jacques C. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Rada, Nicholas E., 2019. "Assessing farm performance by size in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 153-164.
    8. Sanchez-Romero, Miguel & Schuster, Philip & Prskawetz, Alexia, 2021. "Redistributive effects of pension reforms: Who are the winners and losers?," ECON WPS - Working Papers in Economic Theory and Policy 06/2021, TU Wien, Institute of Statistics and Mathematical Methods in Economics, Economics Research Unit.
    9. Bishnu, Monisankar & Guo, Nick L. & Kumru, Cagri S., 2019. "Social security with differential mortality," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. George Kudrna, 2015. "Means Testing of Public Pensions: The Case of Australia," Working Papers wp338, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    11. Kudrna, George & Tran, Chung & Woodland, Alan, 2022. "Sustainable and equitable pensions with means testing in aging economies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    12. Joanna Tyrowicz & Krzysztof Makarski & Marcin Bielecki, 2016. "Reforming retirement age in DB and DC pension systems in an aging OLG economy with heterogenous agents," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-36, December.
    13. Monisankar Bishnu & Nick L. Guo & Cagri S Kumru, 2017. "Social Security: Progressive Benefits but Regressive Outcome?," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2017-656, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    14. Sánchez-Romero, Miguel & Schuster, Philip & Prskawetz, Alexia, 2024. "Redistributive effects of pension reforms: who are the winners and losers?," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(2), pages 294-320, April.
    15. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Härtl, Klaus & Leite, Duarte N., 2018. "Earnings test, non-actuarial adjustments and flexible retirement," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 78-83.
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