Nicholas Barr


Nicholas Barr is Senior Lecturer in Economics at the London School of Economics. His publications include The Economics of the Welfare State (OUP, 1993) and Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe: The Transition and Beyond (ed., OUP, for the World Bank, 1994).




Papers Published in World Economics:


The Public/Private Mix in UK Pension Policy

The UK government aims to shift the balance between public (Pay-As-You-Go) and private (funded) pensions from 60:40 today to 40:60 by 2050 (UK DSS 1998). What is the economic rationale for this shift? Funding pensions may have a positive effect on economic growth and the long-term sustainability of the public finances, but such a move is only one of a menu of policies capable of achieving these outcomes. It follows that some other ratio between public and private provision would be possible, and there are a range of policy directions open to the government.

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