Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T22:39:53.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Funding of pensions and economic growth: are they really related?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2012

EELCO ZANDBERG
Affiliation:
University of Groningen (Department of Economics, Econometrics and Finance) and Netspar (e-mail: e.d.zandberg@rug.nl)
LAURA SPIERDIJK
Affiliation:
University of Groningen (Department of Economics, Econometrics and Finance) and Netspar

Abstract

We examine whether changes in the degree of pension funding affect economic growth. Our sample consists of 54 countries, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as well as non-OECD, during 2001–10. We do not find any effect of changes in the degree of funding on growth in the short-run. For the long-run the evidence is mixed. Although a growth model with overlapping observations suggests that there is a positive effect of funding changes on economic growth, we find no effect in a simple cross-sectional model.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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

Arrelano, M. and Bond, S. (1991) Some tests of specification for panel data: Monte-Carlo evidence and an application to employment equations. Review of Economic Studies, 58: 277297.Google Scholar
Barr, N. (2000) Reforming pensions: Myths, truths, and policy choices. IMF Working Paper 00/139, International Monetary Fund.Google Scholar
Barr, N. and Diamond, P. (2006) The economics of pensions. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 22(1): 1539.Google Scholar
Barro, R. (1997) Determinants of Economic Growth. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Barro, R. (2001) Human capital and growth. American Economic Review, 91(2): 1217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, T. and Levine, R. (2004) Stock markets, banks and growth: panel evidence. Journal of Banking and Finance, 28: 423442.Google Scholar
Blanchard, O. and Fischer, S. (1989) Lectures on Macroeconomics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Blundell, R. and Bond, S. (1998) Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models. Journal of Econometrics, 87(1): 115143.Google Scholar
Borsch-Supan, A., Koke, F. and Winter, J. (2005) Pension reform, savings behavior, and capital market performance. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, 4: 87107.Google Scholar
Bosworth, B. and Burtless, G. (2004) Pension reform and saving. National Tax Journal, 57: 703727.Google Scholar
Bruno, G. (2005 a) Approximating the bias of the LSDV estimator for dynamic unbalanced panel data models. Economics Letters, 87: 361366.Google Scholar
Bruno, G. (2005 b) Estimation and inference in dynamic unbalanced panel-data models with a small number of individuals. Stata Journal, 5(4): 473500.Google Scholar
Bun, M. and Kiviet, J. (2003) On the diminishing returns of higher-order terms in asymptotic expansions of bias. Economics Letters, 79: 145152.Google Scholar
Cameron, A.C., Gelbach, J. and Miller, D. (2008) Bootstrap-based improvements for inference with clustered errors. Review of Economics and Statistics, 90(3): 414427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catalan, M., Impavido, G. and Musalem, A. (2000) Contractual savings or stock market development: Which leads?. Social Protection Discussion Paper Series 0020, The World Bank.Google Scholar
Clark, G. and Hebb, T. (2003) Understanding pension fund corporate engagement in a global arena. Working Paper in Geography 03-01, Oxford University, England.Google Scholar
Coronado, J., Engen, E. and Knight, B. (2003) Public funds and private capital markets: the investment practices and performance of state and local pension funds. National Tax Journal, 56(3): 579594.Google Scholar
Davis, E. (2002) Institutional investors, corporate governance and the performance of the corporate sector. Economic Systems, 26: 203229.Google Scholar
Davis, E. (2004) Financial development, institutional investors and economic performance. In Goodhard, C. A. E. (ed.), Financial Development and Economic Growth. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Davis, E. and Hu, Y.-W. (2008) Does funding of pensions stimulate economic growth?. Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, 7: 221249.Google Scholar
Davis, E. P. and Hu, Y.-W. (2006) Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income, chap. Funding, saving and economic growth, pp. 201218. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Disney, R. (2002) Retirement, pension costs and tax policy in Europe. Presented at Retirement Policy, Reykjavik, Iceland.Google Scholar
Disney, R., Boeri, T. and Jappelli, T. (2004) Are contributions to public pension programmes a tax on employment?. Economic Policy, 19(39): 269311.Google Scholar
Feldstein, M. and Horioka, C. (1980) Domestic saving and international capital flows. Economic Journal, 90(358): 314329.Google Scholar
Hodrick, R. (1992) Dividend yields and expected stock returns: alternative procedures for inference and measurement. Review of Financial Studies, 5(3): 357386.Google Scholar
Holzmann, R. (1997 a) On economic benefits and fiscal requirements of moving from unfunded to funded pensions. European Economy Reports and Studies, 4: 121166.Google Scholar
Holzmann, R. (1997 b) Pension reform, financial market development, and economic growth: preliminary evidence from Chile. Staff Papers – International Monetary Fund, 44(2): 149178.Google Scholar
Hu, Y.-W. (2005) Pension reform, economic growth and financial development. Economics and Finance Working Paper, 05-05, Brunel University.Google Scholar
Impavido, G., Musalem, A. and Tressel, T. (2003) The impact of contractual savings institutions on securities markets. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2948, The World Bank.Google Scholar
Kakes, J. (2006) Financial behaviour of Dutch pension funds: a disaggregated approach. DNB Working Paper 108, De Nederlandsche Bank.Google Scholar
Kiviet, J. & Bun, M. (2001) The accuracy of inference in small samples of dynamic panel data models. Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper 2001-006/4, Tinbergen Institute.Google Scholar
Kotlikoff, L. (1996) Privatization of social security: how it works and why it matters. Tax Policy and the Economy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, pp. 132.Google Scholar
Levine, R. and Zervos, S. (1998) Stock markets, banks, and economic growth. American Economic Review 88(3): 537558.Google Scholar
Lopez-Murphy, P. and Musalem, A. (2004) Pension funds and national saving. Policy Research Working Paper Series 3410, The World Bank.Google Scholar
Nickell, S. (1981) Biases in dynamic models with fixed effects. Econometrica, 49: 14171426.Google Scholar
Raffelhuschen, B. (1993) Funding social security through Pareto-optimal conversion policies. Journal of Economics, 7: 105131.Google Scholar
Reisen, H. and Bailliu, J. (1997) Do funded pensions contribute to higher aggregate savings: a cross-country analysis. OECD Development Centre Technical Papers 130, OECD.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D. (2008) The real exchange rate and economic growth. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2008(Fall 2008): 365412.Google Scholar
Samwick, A. (2000) Is pension reform conducive to higher saving?. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 82(2): 264272.Google Scholar
Sinn, H.-W. (2000) Why a funded pension system is useful and why it is not useful. International Tax and Public Finance, 7: 389410.Google Scholar
Woidtke, T. (2002) Agents watching agents? Evidence from pension fund ownership and firm value. Journal of Financial Economics, 63(1): 99131.Google Scholar