Intergenerational altruism with future bias

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gonzalez, Francisco M.; Lazkano, Itziar; Smulders, Sjak A.
• 署名单位: University of Waterloo; University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Milwaukee; Tilburg University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2018.10.004
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 436-454
• 关键词: Intergenerational altruism; Future bias; time inconsistency; beta-delta Discounting; Pay-as-you-go pension plans

摘要

We show that standard preferences of altruistic overlapping generations exhibit future bias, which involves preference reversals associated with increasing impatience. This underlies a conflict of interest between successive generations. We explore the implications of this conflict for intergenerational redistribution when there is a sequence of utilitarian governments representing living generations and choosing policies independently over time. We argue that future bias creates incentives to legislate and sustain a pay-as-you-go pension system, which every government views as a self-enforcing commitment mechanism to increase future old-age transfers. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.