This course is taught in the second semester addressing in particular on the solvency and fairness conditions of different pension designs. In particular, this course focuses on:
- The basic concepts of pension economics and the different measures of pension adequacy;
- How to assess the solvency of pension systems (actuarial balances vs double-entry bookkeeping);
- The different notions of fairness and how to assess it in different pension designs;
- The role of pension indexation and the phenomenon of vintage pensions;
- The emergence of non-financial defined-contribution pension systems as an alternative to privately-managed funded systems;
- Discretion vs Automatism in adjustments: the so-called point systems;
- The basics of demography and the effects of worsening demography on pay-as-you-go and funded pension system.
With reference to all topics listed above, students will be asked to develop a critical attitude towards the realism and the soundness of the assumptions underlying the various models and the ability to use the relevant elements of the economists’ toolbox to specific case studies.
