Pub Date : 2025-08-17DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100594
Halim Yoon
Social Security began to gradually raised the Full Retirement Age (FRA) from 65 to 67 in 2000. While previous research has shown that this reform increased employment and labor supply among older adults, its impact on unemployment among older workers is limited. As employment rises among older individuals, there is an increased risk of facing periods of unemployment at older ages. In addition, people may experience longer unemployment spells if they choose to stay unemployed strategically in order to collect Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and delay claiming Social Security. This study uses data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to examine the effect of raising the FRA on unemployment among older men born between 1932 and 1940. The findings indicate a slight increase in unemployment among cohorts with higher FRAs. However, this increase does not translate into longer unemployment spells. Instead, unemployed individuals aged 62 to 65 in the treated cohorts are more likely to move from unemployment to employment, rather than remaining unemployed or retiring. Moreover, there is no strong evidence of strategic use of UI. The results suggest that individuals subject to greater penalties for early Social Security claiming experience higher unemployment as they stay longer in the labor market, rather than through any strategic effort to collect UI benefits.
{"title":"The effect of the increase in social security’s full retirement age on unemployment among older adults","authors":"Halim Yoon","doi":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100594","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100594","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Social Security began to gradually raised the Full Retirement Age (FRA) from 65 to 67 in 2000. While previous research has shown that this reform increased employment and labor supply among older adults, its impact on unemployment among older workers is limited. As employment rises among older individuals, there is an increased risk of facing periods of unemployment at older ages. In addition, people may experience longer unemployment spells if they choose to stay unemployed strategically in order to collect Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and delay claiming Social Security. This study uses data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to examine the effect of raising the FRA on unemployment among older men born between 1932 and 1940. The findings indicate a slight increase in unemployment among cohorts with higher FRAs. However, this increase does not translate into longer unemployment spells. Instead, unemployed individuals aged 62 to 65 in the treated cohorts are more likely to move from unemployment to employment, rather than remaining unemployed or retiring. Moreover, there is no strong evidence of strategic use of UI. The results suggest that individuals subject to greater penalties for early Social Security claiming experience higher unemployment as they stay longer in the labor market, rather than through any strategic effort to collect UI benefits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45848,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Economics of Ageing","volume":"32 ","pages":"Article 100594"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144988580","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-19DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100587
Martin G. Haas, Uwe Sunde
In economics, most empirical studies of the consequences of changes in longevity focus on life expectancy, without considering other moments of the survival probability distribution. Here, we apply a novel parsimonious parametric and easily implementable decomposition method of variation in longevity based on life table information. We document several empirical facts of longevity changes around the world and their associations with aggregate population dynamics and economic development, and demonstrate that a parametric decomposition of changes in longevity beyond life expectancy can be very useful for various applications.
{"title":"Decomposing longevity: How life expectancy changes around the world","authors":"Martin G. Haas, Uwe Sunde","doi":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100587","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100587","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In economics, most empirical studies of the consequences of changes in longevity focus on life expectancy, without considering other moments of the survival probability distribution. Here, we apply a novel parsimonious parametric and easily implementable decomposition method of variation in longevity based on life table information. We document several empirical facts of longevity changes around the world and their associations with aggregate population dynamics and economic development, and demonstrate that a parametric decomposition of changes in longevity beyond life expectancy can be very useful for various applications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45848,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Economics of Ageing","volume":"32 ","pages":"Article 100587"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144724417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-30DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100590
Yannick Schindler , Andrew J. Scott
This paper examines the macroeconomic impact of chronic disease in the United Kingdom (UK). We use individual-level data to estimate how diagnoses of six major diseases affect labor market transitions and combine these with a tractable growth model with age-specific productivity and labor force participation to quantify the impact of chronic disease on UK economic growth. Using a novel machine learning approach to classify National Health Service (NHS) cost data, we also provide new estimates of disease-specific treatment costs. Our findings indicate that a 20% reduction in disease incidence would increase annual GDP by 0.99% after five years and 1.51% after ten years. Most of the gains are due to increased participation in the labor force, especially among workers aged 50 to 65 years. Reductions in mental health conditions and musculoskeletal conditions contribute the most to these effects. Our analysis points to three important features of preventative health policies: (1) the potential welfare gains are substantial and manifest themselves in terms of both improved population health and increased output growth, (2) only around 40% of long-term effects appear after five years, and (3) the 50–65 age group experiences the largest labor force participation gains. This last feature is due to two factors: improved health at those ages prevents transitions into health-related inactivity and a larger share of workers reaches this age band as a result of reduced transitions into inactivity at earlier ages. This compounding effect underscores the importance of targeting prevention efforts at earlier ages.
{"title":"The macroeconomic impact of chronic disease in the United Kingdom","authors":"Yannick Schindler , Andrew J. Scott","doi":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100590","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100590","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the macroeconomic impact of chronic disease in the United Kingdom (UK). We use individual-level data to estimate how diagnoses of six major diseases affect labor market transitions and combine these with a tractable growth model with age-specific productivity and labor force participation to quantify the impact of chronic disease on UK economic growth. Using a novel machine learning approach to classify National Health Service (NHS) cost data, we also provide new estimates of disease-specific treatment costs. Our findings indicate that a 20% reduction in disease incidence would increase annual GDP by 0.99% after five years and 1.51% after ten years. Most of the gains are due to increased participation in the labor force, especially among workers aged 50 to 65 years. Reductions in mental health conditions and musculoskeletal conditions contribute the most to these effects. Our analysis points to three important features of preventative health policies: (1) the potential welfare gains are substantial and manifest themselves in terms of both improved population health and increased output growth, (2) only around 40% of long-term effects appear after five years, and (3) the 50–65 age group experiences the largest labor force participation gains. This last feature is due to two factors: improved health at those ages prevents transitions into health-related inactivity and a larger share of workers reaches this age band as a result of reduced transitions into inactivity at earlier ages. This compounding effect underscores the importance of targeting prevention efforts at earlier ages.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45848,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Economics of Ageing","volume":"32 ","pages":"Article 100590"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144670667","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-25DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100593
Philipp Toussaint, Sebastian Schultis, Stefan Seuffert
The demographic transition poses significant fiscal challenges to pay-as-you-go social security systems, particularly in ageing societies like Germany. While extensive research has analyzed the direct effects of demographic change on rising contribution rates, the secondary effects of the income tax system that arise from the deductibility of contributions have received little attention. This study addresses this gap by examining how the tax treatment of social security contributions influences distribution of the demographic burden. Based on detailed microdata from the German Income and Expenditure Survey (EVS) and official income tax statistics, we apply a generational accounting framework to analyze intergenerational redistribution effects. As a secondary finding, we also identify intragenerational redistribution resulting from the tax deductibility of proportional social security contributions under a progressive income tax schedule. Our findings reveal that future generations are disproportionately affected by declining income tax revenues, while current generations benefit from an average tax relief of 47 percent. Moreover, a regressive burden distribution is indicated: individuals in the lowest income quintile face an effective burden of 91 percent, as compared to 62 percent in the top quintile. These results underscore the importance of accounting for indirect tax effects when evaluating the long-term sustainability and equity of social insurance reforms.
{"title":"Navigating demographic challenges: The impact of increasing social contribution rates on tax revenue and distribution","authors":"Philipp Toussaint, Sebastian Schultis, Stefan Seuffert","doi":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100593","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100593","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The demographic transition poses significant fiscal challenges to pay-as-you-go social security systems, particularly in ageing societies like Germany. While extensive research has analyzed the direct effects of demographic change on rising contribution rates, the secondary effects of the income tax system that arise from the deductibility of contributions have received little attention. This study addresses this gap by examining how the tax treatment of social security contributions influences distribution of the demographic burden. Based on detailed microdata from the German Income and Expenditure Survey (EVS) and official income tax statistics, we apply a generational accounting framework to analyze intergenerational redistribution effects. As a secondary finding, we also identify intragenerational redistribution resulting from the tax deductibility of proportional social security contributions under a progressive income tax schedule. Our findings reveal that future generations are disproportionately affected by declining income tax revenues, while current generations benefit from an average tax relief of 47 percent. Moreover, a regressive burden distribution is indicated: individuals in the lowest income quintile face an effective burden of 91 percent, as compared to 62 percent in the top quintile. These results underscore the importance of accounting for indirect tax effects when evaluating the long-term sustainability and equity of social insurance reforms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45848,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Economics of Ageing","volume":"32 ","pages":"Article 100593"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144516999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-22DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100592
Gang Qiao , Ruipeng Tan
We investigate the impact of aging on enterprise digital transformation in China. We find that aging significantly inhibits the digitalization level of enterprises. Mechanism analysis shows that aging is unfavorable to the digital transformation of enterprises by raising their labor costs, such as reducing the skilled labor supply, increasing wages and the relative prices of skills, and raising job training expenditure. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the negative impact of aging is more significant for firms facing stronger financing constraints, non-SOE firms, smaller scale firms, labor-intensive firms, and in the manufacturing and high-tech industries.
{"title":"Demographic change, firm costs, and digital transformation","authors":"Gang Qiao , Ruipeng Tan","doi":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100592","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100592","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate the impact of aging on enterprise digital transformation in China. We find that aging significantly inhibits the digitalization level of enterprises. Mechanism analysis shows that aging is unfavorable to the digital transformation of enterprises by raising their labor costs, such as reducing the skilled labor supply, increasing wages and the relative prices of skills, and raising job training expenditure. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the negative impact of aging is more significant for firms facing stronger financing constraints, non-SOE firms, smaller scale firms, labor-intensive firms, and in the manufacturing and high-tech industries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45848,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Economics of Ageing","volume":"32 ","pages":"Article 100592"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144470715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-19DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100588
Jacob Hutchings , Adriana Lleras-Muney , Joshua Nicholls , Joseph Price , Sven E Wilson
Abundant research has demonstrated that substantial spousal concordance in health exists across multiple measures and populations and that the magnitude of this association is similar to spousal correlations in education and socioeconomic status. This strong spousal concordance in health results from both sorting in the marriage market and from behavioral and environmental risk factors shared by the couple. In this paper we test the hypothesis that the spousal correlation in lifespan–a summary measure of health–is similarly concordant. We create a new data set to investigate this hypothesis. We link about 15 million couples drawn from the US censuses of 1880–1940 to genealogical data available in family trees to obtain lifespan information for spouses. We document spousal correlations across time and compare spousal correlations in lifespan to opposite-gender sibling correlations in lifespan using a sample of 26 million opposite-gender sibling pairs. Surprisingly, and in contrast to what other health measures show, we find that the spousal lifespan correlation (0.063) is relatively small, though only a little smaller than the sibling correlation (0.076), which captures both genetic and early life environmental risk factors. However, we also find that the spousal correlation roughly doubles in size across cohorts (from around 0.05 for the 1880 birth cohort to 0.10 for the 1920 birth cohort). The fact that the spousal and sibling correlation track each other closely across cohorts suggests a growing importance of local risk factors that are shared by both spouses and siblings in determining lifespan, an interpretation that is also consistent with our other findings which suggest that the duration of marriage also increases spousal correlations. For the last decade, however, the growth in spousal correlation outpaces that of siblings, suggesting either increased assortative mating or an increase in the relative importance of couple-specific risk factors.
{"title":"Long-run patterns in the spousal correlation of lifespan","authors":"Jacob Hutchings , Adriana Lleras-Muney , Joshua Nicholls , Joseph Price , Sven E Wilson","doi":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100588","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100588","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Abundant research has demonstrated that substantial spousal concordance in health exists across multiple measures and populations and that the magnitude of this association is similar to spousal correlations in education and socioeconomic status. This strong spousal concordance in health results from both sorting in the marriage market and from behavioral and environmental risk factors shared by the couple. In this paper we test the hypothesis that the spousal correlation in lifespan–a summary measure of health–is similarly concordant. We create a new data set to investigate this hypothesis. We link about 15 million couples drawn from the US censuses of 1880–1940 to genealogical data available in family trees to obtain lifespan information for spouses. We document spousal correlations across time and compare spousal correlations in lifespan to opposite-gender sibling correlations in lifespan using a sample of 26 million opposite-gender sibling pairs. Surprisingly, and in contrast to what other health measures show, we find that the spousal lifespan correlation (0.063) is relatively small, though only a little smaller than the sibling correlation (0.076), which captures both genetic and early life environmental risk factors. However, we also find that the spousal correlation roughly doubles in size across cohorts (from around 0.05 for the 1880 birth cohort to 0.10 for the 1920 birth cohort). The fact that the spousal and sibling correlation track each other closely across cohorts suggests a growing importance of local risk factors that are shared by both spouses and siblings in determining lifespan, an interpretation that is also consistent with our other findings which suggest that the duration of marriage also increases spousal correlations. For the last decade, however, the growth in spousal correlation outpaces that of siblings, suggesting either increased assortative mating or an increase in the relative importance of couple-specific risk factors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45848,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Economics of Ageing","volume":"32 ","pages":"Article 100588"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144366312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-17DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100591
Ignacio Belloc , José Alberto Molina , Jorge Velilla
We study the impact of inheritances on physical and mental health outcomes, using a longitudinal, cross-country dataset covering 16 European countries over 2004–2017. The results show that the receipt of an inheritance is negatively associated with BMI and being obese among women. We also find evidence of an increase in the probability of experiencing depressive symptoms among women following an inheritance. When we account for individual heterogeneity, we find that the receipt of an inheritance increases the probability of being depressed by 2.3 percentage points among women. This finding is driven by unexpected inheritances and female heirs who are less educated, unmarried, unemployed, and living in Southern European countries. In addition, the receipt of an inheritance increases the probability of women engaging in vigorous and moderate physical activities by 2.6 and 2 percentage points, respectively.
{"title":"When wealth hurts: Inheritances and the health of older Europeans","authors":"Ignacio Belloc , José Alberto Molina , Jorge Velilla","doi":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100591","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100591","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study the impact of inheritances on physical and mental health outcomes, using a longitudinal, cross-country dataset covering 16 European countries over 2004–2017. The results show that the receipt of an inheritance is negatively associated with BMI and being obese among women. We also find evidence of an increase in the probability of experiencing depressive symptoms among women following an inheritance. When we account for individual heterogeneity, we find that the receipt of an inheritance increases the probability of being depressed by 2.3 percentage points among women. This finding is driven by unexpected inheritances and female heirs who are less educated, unmarried, unemployed, and living in Southern European countries. In addition, the receipt of an inheritance increases the probability of women engaging in vigorous and moderate physical activities by 2.6 and 2 percentage points, respectively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45848,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Economics of Ageing","volume":"32 ","pages":"Article 100591"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144314644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-11DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100579
David E. Bloom , Andrew J. Scott
{"title":"Introduction to this Special Issue: The Economics of Ageing","authors":"David E. Bloom , Andrew J. Scott","doi":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100579","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100579","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45848,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Economics of Ageing","volume":"32 ","pages":"Article 100579"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144314643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100578
Jongseok Oh , Seho Son , Kun Lee
In this study, we investigate an underexplored mechanism through which a mandatory pension scheme effectively excludes low-status older adults. We examine the patterns of individuals dropping out from the National Pension System just before the eligibility age, the largest public pension scheme in South Korea. We analyze administrative pension insurance data on individuals eligible for a lump-sum refund of lifetime contributions at age 60 due to insufficient contribution records – a negatively selected subpopulation. We employ a set of linear probability models with several fixed-effect specifications to investigate individual- and regional-level determinants of late-stage dropout. Results reveal a unique U-shaped relationship between the size of accrued contributions and the probability of dropping out, suggesting that immediate budget constraints could be the primary reason for dropouts among low-status workers. We also find that individuals with unstable labor market histories are more inclined to choose the refund option, while a regional economic decline is associated with an increase in withdrawals. We call for alternative policy approaches to protect the financially vulnerable and provide implications for other pension latecomer countries.
{"title":"Exclusion from a ‘mandatory’ pension scheme: Late-stage dropouts from the National Pension System in South Korea","authors":"Jongseok Oh , Seho Son , Kun Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100578","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100578","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, we investigate an underexplored mechanism through which a mandatory pension scheme effectively excludes low-status older adults. We examine the patterns of individuals dropping out from the National Pension System just before the eligibility age, the largest public pension scheme in South Korea. We analyze administrative pension insurance data on individuals eligible for a lump-sum refund of lifetime contributions at age 60 due to insufficient contribution records – a negatively selected subpopulation. We employ a set of linear probability models with several fixed-effect specifications to investigate individual- and regional-level determinants of late-stage dropout. Results reveal a unique U-shaped relationship between the size of accrued contributions and the probability of dropping out, suggesting that immediate budget constraints could be the primary reason for dropouts among low-status workers. We also find that individuals with unstable labor market histories are more inclined to choose the refund option, while a regional economic decline is associated with an increase in withdrawals. We call for alternative policy approaches to protect the financially vulnerable and provide implications for other pension latecomer countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45848,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Economics of Ageing","volume":"31 ","pages":"Article 100578"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144189432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100570
Friedrich Breyer, Christian Breunig, Mark Kapteina, Guido Schwerdt, Maj-Britt Sterba
We examine preferences for redistribution in Germany’s public pension system as well as notions of fairness of the system, using survey and experimental data from citizens and politicians. Our findings reveal a widespread rejection of strict proportionality between contributions and benefits, with strong support for greater redistribution to low earners. Information on inequalities in life expectancy reduces perceived fairness and increases support for redistribution among voters and politically moderate legislators. The study also reveals significant knowledge gaps about the basic features of the existing pension scheme among citizens. We demonstrate that policy-relevant information influences fairness perceptions.
{"title":"Between Beveridge and Bismarck: Preferences for redistribution through public pensions","authors":"Friedrich Breyer, Christian Breunig, Mark Kapteina, Guido Schwerdt, Maj-Britt Sterba","doi":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100570","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100570","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We examine preferences for redistribution in Germany’s public pension system as well as notions of fairness of the system, using survey and experimental data from citizens and politicians. Our findings reveal a widespread rejection of strict proportionality between contributions and benefits, with strong support for greater redistribution to low earners. Information on inequalities in life expectancy reduces perceived fairness and increases support for redistribution among voters and politically moderate legislators. The study also reveals significant knowledge gaps about the basic features of the existing pension scheme among citizens. We demonstrate that policy-relevant information influences fairness perceptions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":45848,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Economics of Ageing","volume":"31 ","pages":"Article 100570"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144195890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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