The Economics of Pensions

This paper has a two-fold purpose. It sets out the economic analytics of pensions without discussion of empirical magnitudes and outside the context of any particular country, with the intention of giving readers a systematic way of thinking about the topic. The paper is also intended as a contribution to a continuing debate, hence part of the discussion rebuts arguments that we regard as false, or equivocal, or true in some circumstances but not necessarily always.