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PAY-AS-YOU-GO PENSIONS AND ENDOGENOUS RETIREMENT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 January 2019
Abstract
This paper revisits two classic results in standard overlapping generations models with a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension system. Firstly, a PAYG system crowds out private savings and reduces the overall capital stock. Secondly, in dynamically efficient economies, a PAYG system will reduce steady-state welfare. These classic results have been derived and exposed in models with no retirement decision. However, by allowing for endogenous retirement, and without taking recourse to any frictions, uncertainty, or myopia, it is shown that a PAYG system may be neutral and may even increase the capital–labor ratio. In particular, it is shown that the effect of the pension contribution rate on capital intensity depends on the elasticity of substitution between consumption and leisure. If the elasticity of substitution is between 0 and 1, an increase in the contribution rate will increase capital intensity. Moreover, it is shown that the result regarding welfare may also be overturned. An increase in the PAYG contribution rate may increase steady-state welfare.
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- © Cambridge University Press 2019
Footnotes
We are indebted to Joydeep Bhattacharya, Steinar Holden, Øystein Thøgersen, and two anonymous referees for valuable comments and suggestions. An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the Overlapping Generations Days, 2014, the International Institute of Public Finance conference, 2014, and the Annual Missouri Economics Conference, 2014. This research was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China.
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