Politico-economic analysis of redistribution policies

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K03509
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Public finance/Public economy
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Ono Tetsuo 大阪大学, 経済学研究科, 教授 (50305661)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 失業 / 経済成長 / 投票 / 世代間厚生 / 社会保障

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project includes three studies. First, I examine how debt and tax financing differ in terms of growth and welfare across generations, as well as which fiscal stance voters support. The analysis shows that the growth rate in debt financing is lower than that in tax financing, and that debt financing creates a tradeoff between generations. Second, I present voting over public pensions, and show that the growth rate is higher in the presence of an annuity market than in its absence, but its presence implies an intergenerational trade-off in terms of utility. Third, I present a model featuring collective wage-bargaining and voting over fiscal policy, and show that an increase in the political power of elderly persons lowers the growth rate and shifts government expenditure from unemployed persons to elderly ones; and that prohibiting debt finance increases the growth rate and benefits future generations; however, it worsens the state of present-day employed and unemployed persons.

Free Research Field

政治経済学