Is Social Security Harmful to the Environmental Quality?

Abstract

This paper utilizes the two-period overlapping generations model developed by John and Pecchenino (1994) to examine the impacts of the social security program on environment quality. The main findings are as follows. First, a higher social security benefit leads to a lower environmental quality. Second, the competitive equilibrium is dynamically inefficient in the presence of the consumption externalities. Finally, two kinds of tax scheme, one based on differential environmental taxes and the other based on uniform environmental taxes, are designed to put the economy into the optimal allocation.

The Impact of Population Aging on Environmental Quality: Does Social Security Matter?

“…The environmental tax-financed social security reform was examined by Felder and Nieuwkoop (2000), Wendner (2001), and Ono (2005;2007) and displayed that this reform makes the quality of the environment and well-being better. Rangel's (2003) and Liang and Wu (2013) study the relationship between social security and the quality of the environment in the political equilibrium and the competitive equilibrium respectively.…”

Acquisition of Environmental Awareness: The Interplay with Institutional Development

“…Despite the static and fixed nature of the law, as argued by Ebbesson (2010), in some situations other values and ethical concerns may override the value of legal rules, since legal certainty may sometimes simply be unfair or discriminatory. For example, Liang and Wu (2013) demonstrate that in countries where the population is aging the introduction of higher social security benefits may lead to a lower environmental quality.…”