Journal of Public Economics · 2026 · Youngsoo Jang、Svetlana Pashchenko、Ponpoje Porapakkarm
中文摘要
公共政策是否应当应对由异质性预期寿命导致的不平等?直观而言, 若将短寿视为一种劣势, 此类政策应当偏向高死亡率人群。然而, 养老金制度却隐性地从低预期寿命人群向高预期寿命人群进行再分配。而且, 从标准功利主义福利准则的角度来看, 这种再分配方向是最优的。我们在一个更为灵活的设定中研究与死亡率相关的再分配。我们首先建立一个正式分析框架, 明确区分死亡率维度与收入维度上的再分配。随后, 我们刻画了向高死亡率人群进行再分配为最优的条件。其中一个条件是, 福利准则必须表现出对终身不平等的厌恶程度超过对消费不平等的厌恶程度。
Abstract
Should public policies address inequality due to heterogeneous life expectancy? Intuitively, taking a short life as a disadvantage, such policies should favor those with high mortality. Yet, pension systems implicitly redistribute from low-life-expectancy to high-life-expectancy people. Moreover, this direction of redistribution is optimal from the perspective of the standard utilitarian welfare criterion. We study mortality-related redistribution in a more flexible setting. We start by establishing a formal framework for the analysis by clearly distinguishing between redistribution along the mortality and income dimensions. We then characterize the conditions under which it is optimal to redistribute toward high-mortality people. One such condition is that the welfare criterion must feature an aversion to lifetime inequality that exceeds the aversion to consumption inequality.