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Has Social Security Policy Converged? Cross-Country Evolution of Old Age Benefits, 1890–2000

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2012

Alexander Elu-Terán
Alexander Elu-Terán*
Affiliation:
Researcher, Department of History and Civilization, European University Institute, Via Boccaccio 121, 50133 Florence, Italy. E-mail: alexander.elu@eui.eu.
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Abstract

The extension of social insurance during the twentieth century did not translate into homogeneous pension provision. Using a new database, this article analyzes the evolution of pensions in the long run for a sample of welfare states. The convergence in old age benefits as a share of earnings is only found for all earnings levels between 1970 and 1990. The results also underline the role as determinants of pension policy of both domestic and external factors. In line with previous literature, income per capita and the share of old people are key drivers of pensions. However, the effect of globalization is negative, especially for low and medium earnings levels.

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ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 72 , Issue 4 , 14 December 2012 , pp. 927 - 955
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2012

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