Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/190072 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2018/23
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
We use four novel, cross-country comparable tax-benefit microsimulation models for Ecuador, Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa to evaluate ex ante the expansion of a universal oldage pension in a static setting. Universal pensions would significantly reduce poverty and inequality in settings in which no means-tested old-age pensions exist (such as Ghana and Tanzania). If means-tested old-age pensions exist and shall be maintained, universal pensions as a top-up scheme only make a difference for the income distribution if the existing schemes do not reach the entire vulnerable population, such as in Ecuador. Costs for the proposed schemes are substantial.
Subjects: 
old-age benefit
poverty
SOUTHMOD
tax-benefit microsimulation
JEL: 
H55
I32
C15
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9256-465-0
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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