Taxation in Aging Societies: Increasing the Effectiveness and Fairness of Pension Systems in ADBInstitute

Population aging is accelerating worldwide and has significant socio-economic implications, including a decline in the size of the labour force, an increase in the age-dependency ratio and a redistribution of income and wealth. Hence, the redesign of pension systems has become a priority. Taxation is crucial to influence behaviour and tackle these issues, e.g. tax incentives for pension savings. Yet, whereas some progress has been made, much remains to be done to increase the effectiveness and fairness of pension systems. Thus, we urge G20 governments to take a systemic view of pension systems including socio-economic aspects such as education, migration, labour force participation and informality. Moreover, governments should take into account the distributional impact of tax policies for pension savings.