In this paper we examine the impact of tax contracts as a novel institution on elections, policies, and welfare. We consider a political game in which three parties compete to form the government. Parties have policy preferences about the level of public-good provision and benefit from perks...

This paper reviews a number of recent contributions that study pension design with myopic individuals. Its objective is to explore how the presence of more or less myopic individuals affects pension design when individuals differ also in productivity. This double heterogeneity gives rise to an...

In this paper we explore the consequences for optimality of a social planner adopting two different welfare criteria. The framework of analysis is an OLG model with physical and human capital. We first show that, when the SWF is a discounted sum of individual utilities defined over consumption...

Malgré la réforme de 2003, l’avenir du système français de retraite n’est pas assuré : l’inquiétude persiste tant sur sa soutenabilité financière que surl’évolution du niveau des retraites ; son équité est mise en doute en raison des disparités entre public et privé ou entre...

Hungary has faced a considerable challenge to regain credibility following persistent and high fiscal deficits. Efforts during recent years have produced substantial results. The fiscal deficit has been brought down significantly and, despite the recession, fiscal consolidation has continued to...

By using the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey in 2004, this paper seeks to quantify the potential role and impacts of a social pension scheme for reducing elderly poverty in Vietnam. We simulate how the poverty rate, poverty gap, and poverty severity of the elderly would have been...

This paper estimates the demand curves faced individually by each pension fund management firm that serves compulsory saving for old age in Chile, in 1993-2002. These firms –Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones, AFP- sell their services by retail methods, contacting each client separately....

El sistema de seguridad social se remite a un tipo de Estado benefactor que cubre los riesgos colectivos a los que se ven sujetos los individuos.

In striking contrast with the majority of other European economies, the UK pension system does not pose problems of financial sustainability to public finances. Public expenditure for pensions is foreseen to remain relatively stable for the next 50 years, around 5 percent of GDP, thanks to the...

Participation in supplementary pension funds allows workers to exploit tax benefits and payroll employees to take advantage of employer contributions. The simulations reported in the paper show that these two components can considerably increase workers' retirement wealth. Data show that returns...