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From pension funds to piggy banks : (perverse) consequences of the Stability and Growth Pact since the crisis
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Casey, Bernard H. (2014) From pension funds to piggy banks : (perverse) consequences of the Stability and Growth Pact since the crisis. International Social Security Review, Volume 67 (Number 1). pp. 27-48. doi:10.1111/issr.12029 ISSN 0020-871X.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/issr.12029
Abstract
As part of their strategy for economic and monetary union, European governments committed themselves to fiscal discipline – particularly by placing limits on annual deficits and on public debt. Subsequently, and as they sought to respond to the “current crisis”, they embraced the view that only if public finances were kept under control would sustainable recovery be possible. Rules of fiscal governance were strengthened. To help them meet these rules, the governments of many member States of the European Union made changes to their pension systems or to funds they had established specifically to pay the costs of population ageing. The intention was not to cut retirement benefits or to improve the efficiency of the relevant pension schemes and institutions. Rather, it was to free up resources immediately. Funded pension schemes and pension funds were treated like “piggy banks” that were raided when times became hard. Moreover, the policies pursued succeeded in meeting their objectives only because the system of national accounts according to which outcomes are judged does not recognize the way in which most of the fiscal gains are matched by future fiscal liabilities.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Institute for Employment Research | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | International Social Security Review | ||||||
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. | ||||||
ISSN: | 0020-871X | ||||||
Official Date: | March 2014 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 67 | ||||||
Number: | Number 1 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 27-48 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1111/issr.12029 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
Funder: | Seventh Framework Programme (European Commission) (FP7) | ||||||
Grant number: | GUSTO (FP7) | ||||||
Version or Related Resource: | Previous versions of this paper were given at the conference “Rethinking the Economics of Pensions: Is there a crisis of pensions or of pensions' governance and regulation?” organized by the Knowledge Transfer Network and the University of Warwick and held in London, 21–22 March 2013, the conference “Pension Reforms in Post-Socialist and other Countries: Comparison and Evaluation” held at Poznań University of Technology, 12–13 September 2013, and the conference “Impact of Ageing on Public Finances and Labour Markets in EU Regions” organized by the Institute of Economic Research of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and held in Smolenice, 28–30 October 2013. |
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