Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/86336 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. 07-004/2
Publisher: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
Abstract: 
The paper seeks to explain the huge cross country variation in private pension funding,shaped by historical choice made when universal pension systems were created after theGreat Depression. According to Perotti and von Thadden (2006), large inflationaryshocks due to war damage devastated middle class savings in some countries in the firsthalf of the XX century. This shaped political preferences over the role of capital marketsand social insurance, and contributed to the Great Reversals documented by Rajan andZingales (2003). Wealth distribution shocks are indeed strongly related to private pensionfunding, as a large shock reduces the stock of private retirement assets by 58% of GDP.While the sample size is limited, the results are robust to other explanations, such as legalorigin, original financial development, past and current demographics, religion, electoralvoting rules, redistributive politics, national experiences with financial marketperformance, or other major financial shocks that were not specifically redistributive.Corroborating evidence indicates that such redistributive shocks help explain the crosscountry variation in social expenditures, state ownership of industry, financialdevelopment and employment protection measures as predicted by the political shifthypothesis.
Subjects: 
Pension system
political economy
wealth distribution
investor protection
retirement finance
JEL: 
J26
G23
G34
G38
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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