ABSTRACT
The study of social insurance in general, and old-age pensions in particular, is a new and underdeveloped area of economic research. The existing literature on the economics of old-age pensions consists of a number of articles that may be classified in two broad categories: first, theoretical works which attempt to explain the economic foundations of the collective arrangements that have appeared in modern industrial societies in order to provide economic security during one’s retirement years; and second, empirical works which try to quantify the influence of pension systems on the overall economy, and vice versa. Our work in Part 1 will attempt to make a contribution to the former area of research.
