The Macroeconomics of Ageing, Pensions and Savings

The effect of pension systems on public and private saving is important - savings are a crucial link between decisions today and living standards tomorrow. This paper, following a brief overview of pension systems in some OECD countries, reviews the empirical literature. Two important questions are: do unfunded public pension schemes reduce national saving? Do tax-favoured private saving schemes increase national saving? Quantitative estimates are highly uncertain, but the answers appear to be, "yes, by up 30 per cent of the funding gap"; and "yes, but often not by very much when the fiscal effects are considered." ...