Pensions and Contemporary Socioeconomic Change

The paper discusses the consequences for the functioning of different pension systems of various types of socioeconomic changes, mainly demographic developments, variations in productivity growth and changes in real interest rates. Two of the pension systems have exogenous and four have endogenous contribution rates. I analyze both marginal and radical pension reforms for the purpose of making pension systems more stable, avoiding arbitrary redistibutions between generations and dealing with increased heterogeneity of the population in terms of family structure and international mobility. The advantages of combining PAYGO and actuarially fair systems are pointed out.