Fully funded social security pensions, lifetime risk and income

The paper analyzes the welfare consequences of insuring mortality risk by means of standard, fully funded Social Security pensions when individuals wish to make transfers to their heirs. In the presence of uninsured mortality risk, within-family transfers depend on realized lifespan. While crowding...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Laps, Jochen (Author)
Format: Book/Monograph Working Paper
Language:English
Published: Heidelberg University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics November 3, 2015
Series:Discussion paper series / University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics no. 603
In: Discussion paper series (no. 603)

Subjects:
Online Access:Resolving-System, kostenfrei, Volltext: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-197378
Resolving-System, Volltext: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/127420
Get full text
Author Notes:Jochen Laps
Description
Summary:The paper analyzes the welfare consequences of insuring mortality risk by means of standard, fully funded Social Security pensions when individuals wish to make transfers to their heirs. In the presence of uninsured mortality risk, within-family transfers depend on realized lifespan. While crowding out private transfers, Social Security provides transfer insurance and insurance of the ex ante risk of future generations inheriting a particular amount of transfer wealth. We find that, once ex ante insurance is taken into account, Social Security is welfare improving over the long-run as long as capital is not too productive and the transfer motive is not too strong. Altruists gain far less from Social Security than egoists.
Physical Description:Online Resource
Format:Systemvoraussetzung: PDF Reader.