K2SP 3735 - Population Ageing and Pensions

Population ageing is one mega trend transforming our societies. The first part will highlight the substantial

differences across OECD countries in the extent of population ageing and in the demographic shifts that

challenge pension systems. The second part will first focus on the design of pension systems and will

document the large diversity of pension structures across OECD countries. It will then show that providing

financially and socially sustainable pensions continues to require substantial, often politically perilous,

reforms. The third part will deal with the transmission of inequality into old age. Disadvantages tend to

cumulate over the life course across gender, education, health, employment and wages, calling for a

comprehensive, life-cycle policy approach. The course will shed light on how countries protect the income

of older people against various shocks that happened during the career such as childcare or

unemployment breaks or during retirement such as inflation spikes.

Pensions is an area that is both easily accessible and complex. It is easily accessible because everyone

has some notion about what a pension system is supposed to deliver and knows people, at least in

economically developed countries, who live on pension benefits. It is complex because understanding how

a pension system really works goes far beyond the scope of bar-room discussions and requires the use of

technical arguments. This economics course aims to provide some in-depth background to better assess

pension policies as a key ingredient of social policies more generally.

The course is divided into three parts as explained in the course description. The organisation of the

sessions will be adjusted depending on the number of students. The general idea is that from Session

each two-hour session will be divided into one hour for the lecture and one hour for two presentations. The

30-minute presentation slot is broken down as follows: 15 minutes for slides, 15 minutes for Q&A and

general discussion.

Students will form pairs to make an oral presentation of a paper closely related to the topics covered

during the class. These presentations will start from Session 4. Papers to be presented will be chosen

among a list of articles selected by the professor. A detailed structure of the planned presentation

highlighting the main issues covered in the paper must be submitted to the professor at least two weeks in

advance. Slides should be circulated at least three days before the presentation while the paper will be

part of mandatory readings for the whole class. More broadly, participation by students during the class is

strongly encouraged as reflected by its importance in the overall assessment.

Assessment 1, 30%: Joint presentation.

Assessment 2, 20%: Participation in the collective debates during presentations and participation during

lectures.

Assessment 3, 50%: Policy Paper.

Each student will write a Policy Paper (max 3,000 words). The main objective of the Policy Paper is to

highlight key issues at stake around one ageing-related topic. The chosen topic should refer to some clear

economic policy dimension(s). Backed by a review of the main related references, the author should

provide an analysis of the different views and related trade-offs, backed as much as possible by key data

and published articles dealing with this topic. The author should then offer suggestions of measures or

reform that he/she personally recommends in order to address the main identified questions.

A list of required and optional readings for each session will be provided before the beginning of the

semester.