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Life expectancy, heavy work and the return to education: lessons for the social security reform

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  • Gilles Le Garrec

    (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po)

  • Stéphane Lhuissier

    (Centre de recherche de la Banque de France - Banque de France)

Abstract

In most industrial countries, while the calculation of pension bene ts is progressive, public pension systems redistribute weakly from high to low- income earners. They are close to actuarial fairness. This statement results from the following speci city: less paid jobs are also heavier and health- damaging jobs involving losses in life expectancy. As avoiding low earnings and hard-working conditions require acquisition of skills, we study conjointly in this article the impact of social security and the work-related life expectancy loss on the schooling decision. We then study macroeconomic and distributional consequences of global gain in life expectancy associated with di¤erent social security reforms, focusing particularly on spillover e¤ects possibly generated by education.

Suggested Citation

  • Gilles Le Garrec & Stéphane Lhuissier, 2011. "Life expectancy, heavy work and the return to education: lessons for the social security reform," Working Papers hal-01069511, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01069511
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-01069511
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social security; human capital; inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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