Lefebvre

Publications

Public pension wealth and household asset holdings: new evidence from BelgiumJournal articleMathieu Lefebvre and Sergio Perelman, Journal of Pension Economics & Finance, Volume 19, Issue 3, pp. 309-322, 2020

It has been long suggested that public pension wealth may crowd out household savings. However, there remains controversy about the extent of this displacement effect. In this paper we use an original microsimulation model based on retrospective survey data collected through the third wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to estimate the displacement effect of public pension wealth on other wealth in Belgium. Combining this rich dataset with an accurate estimation of the individual pension entitlements allows us to circumvent some of the main measurement error problems faced by previous studies. We estimate that an extra euro of public pension wealth is associated with about 14–25 cent decline in households’ non-pension wealth.

Spousal and survivor benefits in option value models of retirement: an application to BelgiumJournal articleAlain Jousten and Mathieu Lefebvre, Journal of Pension Economics & Finance, Volume 18, Issue 1, pp. 66-87, 2019

We study retirement incentives with an augmented reduced form option value model à la Stock and Wise (1990). We propose methodological extensions to better reflect the respective incentives faced by singles and couples. Our results show that a more comprehensive modeling of couples’ incentives leads to very different patterns of retirement incentives – particularly for women. We apply the new indicators to data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and retirement in Europe in Belgium and find two key results. First, contrary to several previous studies, we obtain a positive signed income effects. Second, we find very different retirement incentives for men and women, with little flexibility in the retirement decision for men and substantially more flexibility for women as a function of financial incentive and household composition.

Premature mortality and poverty measurement in an OLG economyJournal articleMathieu Lefebvre, Pierre Pestieau and Gregory Ponthiere, Journal of Population Economics, Volume 32, Issue 2, pp. 621-664, 2019

Following Kanbur and Mukherjee (Bull Econ Res 59(4):339–359 2007), a solution to the “missing poor” problem (i.e., selection bias in poverty measures due to income-differentiated mortality) consists in computing hypothetical poverty rates while assigning a fictitious income to the prematurely dead. However, in a dynamic general equilibrium economy, doing “as if” the prematurely dead were still alive is likely to affect wages, output and capital accumulation, with an uncertain effect on poverty. We develop a three-period OLG model with income-differentiated mortality and compare actual poverty rates with hypothetical poverty rates that would have prevailed if everyone faced the survival conditions of the top income class. Including the prematurely dead has an ambiguous impact on poverty, since it affects income distribution through capital dilution, composition effects, and horizon effects. Our results are illustrated by quantifying the impact of income-differentiated mortality on poverty measures for France (1820–2010).

Missing poor and income mobilityJournal articleMathieu Lefebvre, Pierre Pestieau and Gregory Ponthiere, Journal of Comparative Economics, Volume 47, Issue 2, pp. 330-366, 2019

Higher mortality among the poor prevents standard poverty measures from quantifying the actual extent of old-age poverty. Whereas existing attempts to deal with the ”missing poor” problem assume the absence of income mobility and assign to the prematurely dead a fictitious income equal to the last income enjoyed, this paper relaxes that assumption in order to study the impact of income mobility on the size of the missing poor bias. We use data on poverty above age 60 in 12 countries from the EU-SILC database, and we compare standard poverty rates with the hypothetical poverty rates that would have prevailed if (i) all individuals, whatever their income, had enjoyed the same survival conditions, and if (ii) all individuals within the same income class had been subject to the same income mobility process. Taking income mobility into account has unequal effects on corrected poverty measures across countries, and, hence, affects international comparisons in terms of old-age poverty.

« Dis-moi ce que tu penses de la propriété intellectuelle, je te dirai qui tu es »Journal articleRémy Guichardaz, Thomas Coudert, Herrade Igersheim, Mathieu Lefebvre and Julien Pénin, Revue Économique, Volume 70, Issue 6, pp. 1213-1226, 2019

L’objet de cet article est d’analyser de manière expérimentale les liens supposés entre les préférences sociales des individus et la manière dont ils conçoivent la propriété intellectuelle, en opposant en particulier les approches utilitaristes et déontologiques. Pour ce faire, nous avons mis en place un protocole expérimental original à l’interface de deux courants de littérature : l’un, bien établi, traitant des préférences sociales ; l’autre, naissant, tentant de capter les différentes justifications de l’existence de la propriété intellectuelle. Notre expérience aboutit à deux enseignements majeurs : 1) les sujets utilitaristes semblent changer de conception de la justice sociale dès lors que la question de la propriété intellectuelle est posée ; 2) les sujets rawlsiens sont en parfaite cohérence avec l’approche déontologique de la propriété intellectuelle, donnant la priorité aux droits des auteurs et des inventeurs, tout en minimisant les inégalités pouvant en résulter en optant, par exemple, en faveur d’une durée courte de propriété intellectuelle.

The Welfare State in Europe: Economic and Social PerspectivesBookPierre Pestieau and Mathieu Lefebvre, 2018-09, 240 pages, Oxford University Press, 2018

Although in Europe there continues to be a large degree of consensus that it is the responsibility of government to ensure that nobody who is poor, sick, disabled, unemployed, or old is left deprived, there are mounting calls to roll back spending on the welfare state. It is argued that it fails to achieve its main objectives, that it is responsible for a decline in economic performance, and that it was conceived in a very different period and is therefore not adapted to modern realities.This second edition of The Welfare State in Europe: Economic and Social Perspectives provides an informed analysis of the key criticisms of the welfare state and examines the prospects of this system in an increasingly integrated world. It answers important questions regarding the current social situation of European countries, the performance of the welfare states, and the reforms that should be undertaken. It calls for fundamental changes in social policies in order to address the rising inequality that hampers social cohesion in Europe.Now focused on Europe in its entirety and including a new chapter on long term care, this new edition of an integral text on the welfare state places increased focus on social divisions and the populist vote to provide a balanced and up-to-date analysis of the performance of current systems.

L'État-providence. Défense et illustrationBookMathieu Lefebvre and Pierre Pestieau, 2017-12, 240 pages, Presses Universitaires de France, 2017

L’État-providence n’a jamais été autant décrié qu’aujourd’hui, alors qu’il n’a sans doute jamais été aussi nécessaire. Les critiques qu’il doit essuyer viennent de ceux qui veulent en réduire la voilure comme de ceux qui le trouvent incapable de remplir ses principales missions. Les multiples fractures sociales qui ont conduit une partie de la population à douter des politiques censées la secourir pour finir par basculer dans le vote populiste redonnent toute sa justification à un État-providence plus performant et soucieux de combler le fossé séparant une partie de la population socialement intégrée de celle qui compte les exclus. C’est dans cette perspective que se place cet ouvrage. Il présente d’abord un portrait social des pays européens en mettant l’accent sur la France. Il analyse la performance de leurs États-providence face à des obstacles qui ont pour noms « globalisation » et « individualisme ». Il aborde ensuite les principaux domaines où il peut et doit avoir une action : la santé, l’emploi, la retraite et la famille. Il conclut en proposant un certain nombre de recommandations concrètes.

L'État-providence en Europe. Performance et dumping socialBookMathieu Lefebvre and Pierre Pestieau, CEPREMAP, 2012-11, 80 pages, Rue d'Ulm, 2012

Cet opuscule propose une mesure de la performance des États-providence européens fondée sur la manière dont ils traitent des inégalités sociales, de santé, d’emploi et d’éducation. Cette mesure permet de comparer la performance des pays de l’Europe des quinze avec celle des douze nouveaux membres ; elle donne aussi la possibilité de tester l’hypothèse d’un éventuel dumping social à l’œuvre dans ces pays ; enfin elle peut être utilisée pour mieux appréhender la façon dont les différents États...