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Does pension debt mean anything after all?

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  • Beltrametti, Luca
  • Della Valle, Matteo

Abstract

We discuss the meaning of the concept of implicit pension debt (unfunded pen-sion liabilities) from a public finance perspective and contrast different definitions such a variable with the notion of public debt. We conclude that the implicit pen-sion is deeply different from public debt but nevertheless is meaningful for eco-nomic policy. We compute the implicit pension debt associated to retired workers for several countries for different years adopting a homogeneous algorithm. Our results show that the major countries have implicit pension debt of very different size with different trends in the last few years.

Suggested Citation

  • Beltrametti, Luca & Della Valle, Matteo, 2011. "Does pension debt mean anything after all?," MPRA Paper 29694, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:29694
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    Cited by:

    1. Didier Blanchet & Sylvie Le Minez & Anthony Marino, 2017. "Building and Interpreting Macro/Micro Estimates of Accrued-to-Date Pension Liabilities: French Reforms as a Case Study," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(1), pages 70-94, March.
    2. Georgios Symeonidis & Platon Tinios & Michail Chouzouris, 2021. "Public Pensions and Implicit Debt: An Investigation for EU Member States Using Ageing Working Group 2021 Projections," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-18, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Pension liabilities; implicit debt; sovereign debt.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • H63 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - Debt; Debt Management; Sovereign Debt

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