Suchergebnisse

The aim of this article is to investigate the changing balance between public and private components in the income packages of old age pensioners in a selection of nine OECD countries. Four waves of data from the Luxembourg Income Study databank are used to analyse variation across countries and across time in the public/private mix of retirement income. The article seeks to address two main questions: (a) Is there a general trend towards a stronger reliance on private income provision and, perhaps, a trend towards convergence in the balance between public and private income components? (b) Is there evidence of a tendency for substitution/crowding out between public and private income components, and hence a tendency for crossnational convergence in the relative income position enjoyed by old age pensioners – despite variation in the generosity of national pension systems?

In this article, we use an advanced microsimulation model to study the distributional effects of the reformed Norwegian pension system with a particular focus on gender equality. The reformed Norwegian system is based on the notional defined contribution (NDC)-formula with fixed contribution/accrual rates over the active life-phase and with accumulated pension wealth being transformed into an annuity upon retirement. A number of redistributive components are built into the system: a unisex annuity divisor, a ceiling on annual earnings, generous child credits, a possibility for widows/widowers to inherit pension rights from a deceased spouse, a targeted guarantee pensions with higher benefit rates to single pensioners compared to married/cohabitating pensioners, and finally a tax system that is particularly progressive in its treatment of pensioners and pension income. Taking complete actuarial fairness as the point of departure, we conduct a stepwise analysis to investigate how these different components of the National Insurance pension system impact on the gender gap in pensions and on general (Gini) inequality in the distribution of pension income within a cohort of pensioners. Our analysis concentrates on one birth cohort – individuals born in 1963 – and we study three different outcomes: the distribution of annual pensions early in retirement (at age 70), the distribution of the total sum of pension benefits received over retirement, and the distribution of the average annual pension benefits received over the retirement phase. In addition, we look at three alternative income concepts. These are personal income, equivalised household income, and finally an original income concept developed for this study: personal income adjusted for the economies of scale enjoyed by couple households.

Many have predicted that population aging will lead to increased distributional conflicts between the young and the old. Younger population segments will oppose the heavy burden that pension systems and public provision of elderly care place upon them, while the elderly will take advantage of their increased share of the electorate to push through political priorities favoring themselves. Based on this expectation, the chapter sets out to investigate the contemporary age orientation of welfare spending in selected European welfare states and voter preferences with respect to policies that benefit the elderly and families with children, respectively. The study covers 13 European countries, divided into four groups: Social Democratic/Nordic, Liberal, Conservative/Continental and Southern European welfare states. We use data on social expenditure provided by the OECD and data on voter preferences from Round 8 of the European Social Survey. The study reveals a tendency for decline in spending bias in favor of the elderly in all countries. A main result from the analysis of voter preferences is that European voters in general support the idea that the state should take responsibility for the wellbeing of both the elderly and families, and we find a rather modest age gradient in attitudes toward public age-related spending. Our findings indicate a tendency toward convergence in age policy across Europe without clear signs of increasing conflicts between age groups. ; publishedVersion