National Transfer Accounts and intergenerational redistribution in European institutional settings.

01.06.2010 - 31.03.2014
Research funding project
In all societies the very young and the very old consume more than they produce. The survival and welfare of the human species therefore require transfers of resources across ages through family, public taxation or capital market saving. This fundamentally affects the working of financial markets, wealth accumulation and public finance. The project maps these resource flows into a National Accounts framework as part of an international project creating comparable National Transfer Accounts (NTAs). When complete, National Transfer Accounts will (a) provide estimates with sufficient historical depth to study the evolution of intergenerational transfer systems; (b) the consequences of alternative approaches to age reallocations embodied in public policy with respect to pensions, health care, education and social institutions, e.g. the extended family; and (c) the social, political, and economic implications of population ageing. In an ageing Europe the kind of knowledge generated in this project is crucial for the shaping of future social and economic policies. Funding is requested to support the current European NTA teams to perform comparative analyses of the data and adapt the methodology to European institutional settings. NTA will yield important information on wealth accumulation, family economics, equity issues across generations and gender as well as a better understanding of public transfer and consumption systems. Indicators and projections to determine future sustainability of transfer systems and consumption levels can be computed from the data. The comparative analysis of differences in the NTA patterns yields a new approach to understanding the institutional impact of these flows. The country contributions from Spain, Sweden, Austria, Hungary and the Associate Partners in Germany, France and Finland encompass team members with different expertise and cover a wide sample of different institutional arrangements for intergenerational redistribution. For Austria, cross sectional NTAs have been set up for 2000. First results indicate that Austria is rather peculiar in the European comparison showing rather low levels of education and low labor force participation at older ages. Within the collaborative NTA project we will help to refine and develop the NTA methodology and aim for a longitudinal analysis of NTAs in Austria.

People

Project leader

Project personnel

Institute

Grant funds

  • FWF - Österr. Wissenschaftsfonds (National) Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Research focus

  • Beyond TUW-research focus: 100%

Keywords

GermanEnglish
Nationale TransferkontenNational Transfer Accounts
BevölkerungsalterungPopulation Ageing
LebenszyklusdefizitLife Cycle Deficit

External partner

  • Government Institute of Economic Research Research Unit on Taxation and Social Transfers
  • Institute for Future Studies
  • Universitat de Barcelona Facultat de Economia i Empresa, Centre d¿ Anàlisi Econòmica i de les Polítiques Socials (CAEPS)
  • University of Nantes Institut d¿ Economie et de Management
  • Finnish Pension Alliance Research and Development unit
  • Vorvinus University of Budapest TARKI Joint Research Centre
  • Max-Planck-Institut für Demografische Forschung
  • Finnish Centre for Pensions Research Department
  • Government Institute of Economic Research Research Unit on Taxation and Social Transfers

Publications