Om betydelsen av rättvisa för hållbara pensionssystem

En analys och kritik av det svenska pensionssystemet

Abstract

On the Significance of Justice for Sustainable Pension Systems: An Analysis and Critique of the Swedish Pension System

This text highlights the neglected dimension of justice in the design of sustainable pension systems. This is done through an analysis of the current Swedish pay-as-you-go pension system, which is often described as exemplarily sustainable. The detailed analysis singles out four distributional effects that the system produces and which can be considered unfair: (1) that the old have to carry most of the risks of economic recessions; (2) that the least well off among the old are disadvantaged by the use of average life expectancy to index benefits in the system; (3) that the system reproduces and magnifies existing inequalities among the old; and (4) that the payoff from contributing to the system is low, in particular for low-wage workers. The text ends with some suggested reforms which aim to make the pension system more just and hence more sustainable.