OECD Economics Department Working Papers
Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.
The views expressed in these papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries.
- ISSN : 18151973 (en ligne)
- https://doi.org/10.1787/18151973
The Turkish Pension System
Further Reforms to Help Solve the Informality Problem
Recent social security reform has significantly improved the long-run sustainability of the pension system.
However, the pension system continues to serve as an important barrier to a more rapid expansion of the formalsector
economy in two ways. First, early-retirement incentives (including severance payments) continue to push many
incumbent formal sector workers into the informal sector, often at ages as young as 40-45. While new labour force
entrants face a much higher retirement age, policies for incumbents are fiscally expensive, inequitable, and serve to
swell the ranks of the informal sector. Second, even when the transition to the new pension rules is complete, net
replacement rates will remain very high by OECD standards, requiring high social security contribution rates that
make it too expensive for firms to employ low-skilled labour in the formal sector. Thus, further pension reform is one
of the keys to overcoming Turkey's economic duality. Finally, since the pension system does not cover the informal
sector, it does little to alleviate poverty among the wider population of older people. This paper discusses a number of
reforms that would increase the retirement age, reduce inter-generational inequities, and permit a significant cut in the
tax wedge on labour, while better addressing old-age poverty concerns at all levels of income.
This Working Paper relates to the 2006 Economic Survey of Turkey (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/turkey).
Mots-clés: informal economy, pensions, early retirement, Turkey
JEL:
H55: Public Economics / National Government Expenditures and Related Policies / Social Security and Public Pensions;
J18: Labor and Demographic Economics / Demographic Economics / Demographic Economics: Public Policy;
J14: Labor and Demographic Economics / Demographic Economics / Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination;
D10: Microeconomics / Household Behavior and Family Economics / Household Behavior: General
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