Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T21:00:07.817Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gender pension gaps along the distribution: An application to the French case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2020

Carole Bonnet Open the ORCID record for Carole Bonnet [Opens in a new window] ,
Dominique Meurs  and
Benoit Rapoport
Carole Bonnet*
Affiliation:
Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, Paris, France
Dominique Meurs
Affiliation:
Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, Paris, France Université Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
Benoit Rapoport
Affiliation:
Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques, Paris, France University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article we estimate the relative contributions to the gender pension gap of career duration and income earned at different points along the pension income distribution, as well as the role played by minimum pensions and other partly or wholly non-contributory policies in reducing this gap. Our research covers all retirees in France in 2012 employed in the public or private sector at least once in their lifetimes. We first highlight that at every point in the distribution, the gender pension gap is wider for private-sector retirees than for those in the public sector. This is because public sector careers are less fragmented and because the calculation of the public sector reference wage does not penalize career interruptions so heavily. This relative advantage of women in the public sector is probably an additional factor explaining their over-representation in this sector. Applying the decomposition method proposed by Firpo et al. (2007, 2009), we show that composition differences in the gender pension gap are essentially due to differences in contribution periods and wages, with a smaller effect of career duration in the public sector than in the private. In the first deciles, the gap can be attributed largely to differences in career duration. This effect gradually weakens, and differences in the reference wage become the main explanation. We also show that minimum contributory pensions play an extremely important role in limiting the gender pension gap in the first deciles, essentially in the private sector. Last, we show that in all cases the unexplained share of the pension gap is substantial only at the bottom of the distribution and, to a lesser extent, in the top decile. The unexplained share is generally smaller than the explained one and favours men.

Keywords

Gender gapOaxaca-Blinder decompositionpensionpublic sectorquantile decompositionsRIF regressions methodsD31H55J14J16J18
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Pension Economics & Finance , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 76 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aubert, P (2012) Les écarts de niveaux de pension de retraite entre les générations. Dossier Solidarité Santé 33, 3–26.Google Scholar
Baker, M (2002) The retirement behavior of married couples: evidence from the spouse's allowance. The Journal of Human Resources 37(1), 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bardasi, E and Jenkins, SP (2010) The gender gap in private pensions. Bulletin of Economic Research 62, 343–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betti, G, Bettio, F, Georgiadis, T and Tinios, P (2015) Unequal Ageing in Europe. Women's Independence and Pensions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blank, RM (1985) An analysis of workers’ choice between employment in the public and private sectors. Industrial and Labor Relations Review 38(2), 211–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blinder, AS (1973) Wage discrimination: reduced form and structural estimates. The Journal of Human Resources 8, 436–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnet, C and Hourriez, JM (2012a) Inégalités entre hommes et femmes au moment de la retraite en France. Femmes et hommes – Regards sur la Parité, Insee références, 39–51.Google Scholar
Bonnet, C and Hourriez, J-M (2012b) The treatment of couples by the pension system: survivor's pensions and pension splitting. Population 67(1), 147–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnet, C, Meurs, D and Rapoport, B (2018) Gender inequalities in pensions: different components similar levels of dispersion. The Journal of Economic Inequality 16(4), 527-552.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnet, C, Bozio, A and Tréguier, J (2019) Vers un Système de Retraite Universel en Points : Quelles Réformes Pour les Pensions de Réversion ? Paris, France: Institut des politiques publiques.Google Scholar
Bozio, A, Rabaté, S, Rain, A and Tô, M (2018) Reforming the French pension system: the main challenges, IPP Policy brief, 31, 8 p.Google Scholar
DGAFP (2009) “Taux de prime et indice de fin de carrière dans la fonction publique de l'Etat”, Document n°10, séance du Conseil d'orientation des retraites du 13 mai.Google Scholar
Dubois, Y and Marino, A (2015) Le taux de rendement interne du système de retraite français: quelle redistribution au sein d'une génération et quelle évolution entre générations? Economie et Statistique 481-482, 77–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Even, WE and Macpherson, DA (1994) Gender Differences in Pensions. The Journal of Human Resources 29, 555–587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Firpo, S, Fortin, N and Lemieux, T (2007) Decomposing wage distributions using recentered influence function regressions, University of British Columbia (June).Google Scholar
Firpo, S, Fortin, NM and Lemieux, T (2009) Unconditional quantile regressions. Econometrica 77(3), 953–973.Google Scholar
Ginn, J, Street, D and Arber, S (2001) Women, Work, and Pensions: International Issues and Prospects. Philadelphia: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Hänisch, C and Klos, J (2014) A decomposition analysis of the German gender pension gap, Discussion Paper Series, Universität Freiburg, 4.Google Scholar
Hospido, L and Zamarro, G (2014) Retirement patterns of couples in Europe. IZA Journal of European Labor Studies 3(1).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, T (2009) Women and retirement pensions: a research review. Feminist Economics 15(4), 115–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, R (1999) The Gender Gap in Pension Wealth: Is Women's Progress in the Labor Market Equalizing Retirement Benefits?, Brief Series, No. 1, Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Jousten, A and Lefebvre, M (2019) Spousal and survivor benefits in option value models of retirement: an application to Belgium. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance 18(1), 66–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuivalainen, S, Nivalainen, S, Järnefelt, N and Kuitto, K (2018) Length of working life and pension income: empirical evidence on gender and socioeconomic differences from Finland. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, 1–21.Google Scholar
Levine, PJ, Mitchell, SO and Phillips, JW (1999) Worklife determinants of retirement income differentials between men and women, NBER Working Paper, 7243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marin, B and Zólyomi, E (eds) (2010) Women'sWork and Pensions:What is Good,What is Best? Designing Gender-Sensitive Arrangements. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Michaud, P-C (2003) Joint Labour Supply Dynamics of Older Couples, IZA Discussion Paper, 832, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Möhring, K (2015) Employment Histories and Pension Incomes in Europe. A multilevel analysis of the role of institutional factors. European Societies 17(1), 3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newson, R (2002) Parameters behind “nonparametric” statistics: Kendall's tau,Somers' D and median differences. Stata Journal 2(1), 45–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oaxaca, R (1973) Male-female wage differentials in urban labor markets. International Economic Review 14(3), 693–709.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oaxaca, R and Ransom, M (1994) On discrimination and the decomposition of wage differentials. Journal of Econometrics 61(1), 5–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD (2012) Closing the Gender Gap : Act Now. OECD Publishing.Google Scholar
Ponthieux, S and Meurs, D (2015) Gender inequality. In Atkinson, A and Bourguignon, F (eds), Handbook on Income Distribution, vol. 2A, under the direction of A. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon. Elsevier, pp. 981-1186.Google Scholar
Ståhlberg, AC, Cohen, BM, Kruse, A and Sunden, A (2006) Pensions reforms and gender: The case of Sweden. In Gilbert, N and Parent, A (eds), Gender and Social Security Reform: What's Fair for Women? New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, pp. 175–206.Google Scholar
Vara, MJ (2013) Gender inequality in the spanish public pension system. Feminist Economics 19(4), 136–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walraet, E and Vincent, A (2003) La redistribution intragénérationnelle dans le système de retraite des salariés du privé : une approche par microsimulation? Economie et Statistique 366, 31–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, R and Zhao, Y (2018) The gender pension gap in China. Feminist Economics 24(2), 218–239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: File

Bonnet et al. Supplementary Materials

Bonnet et al. Supplementary Materials

Download Bonnet et al. Supplementary Materials(File)
File 34.2 KB