Economic Welfare of Pensioners and the Income Distribution

Abstract

The study compares the level, composition and distribution of pensioners’ income to that of other socioeconomic groups in the period 1990ñ2004. The most important groups of comparison are wage earners, self-employed persons and the group of persons outside the labour force, i.e. long-term unemployed and students. In addition, we examine how changes in pensions and economic welfare of pensioners have affected the evolution of income distribution and poverty.

The developments in income inequality and poverty are examined by the use of decomposition analysis. In this way the measures of income inequality and poverty can be broken down into components, which describe for instance the effects of the poverty risk of different population subgroups on the poverty risk of the whole population. Being pensioner is determined on the basis of the individual personís socioeconomic status, but economic welfare of the pensioner is assessed on the basis of the household that he or she belongs to. When calculating economic welfare the householdís total disposable income is divided by the Modified-OECD scale. The study utilizes Finnish Income Distribution Survey data based on a population sample.

Publication Information

Rantala, J. & Suoniemi, I. (2007), Eläkeläisten toimeentulo tulonjaon kokonaisuudessa, Eläketurvakeskuksen tutkimuksia 2007:2.

• ISSN: 1236-7176
• ISBN: 978-951-691-078-2 (Print), 978-951-691-079-9 (Online)
• Press Release in Finnish