摘要：Many people believe that it is undesirable to redistribute income through an annuity system. From an efficiency point of view, it seems to be better to use a tax system to redistribute income. This paper examines the reasons why an annuity system is used to redistribute income, even when the tax system has a redistributive role. Without myopia and capital market imperfections, redistribution through an annuity system has no advantage compared with a tax system. If individuals are myopic and the capital market is imperfect, however, redistribution through an annuity system increases national saving and has a positive effect on capital formation. The paper shows, in addition, that differences in behavior among income classes are important for public policy-making.
