Generational pension accounting for Hungary

Abstract

First of all, recall our outline of the method of Generational Accounting at the end of Chapter 8. In the present chapter we depict the corresponding calculations of R. I. Gal, A. Simonovits and G. Tarcali concerning the Hungarian pension system (Gal et al., 2001). We emphasize the following specifics of our work. Generational accounting does not give a forecast but computes the long-run consequences of the maintenance of present trends. It gives forecasts only for the demographic processes which are more or less independent of the economy. (Note, however, that Philipson-Becker (1998) argue that a higher annual pension benefit yields a higher life expectancy.) There is no alternative, since according to conventional wisdom it is aging which is mainly to blame for intercohort tensions.