Voting on Social Security: The Family as Decision-Making Unit.

Pay-as-you-go financed social security systems imply transfers of life time income not only among generational cohorts, but also between fam ilies of different size and generational composition. Whereas previou s models of voting on social security in democratic societies focusse d on the first type of transfer and assumed homogeneity of interests within each generation, the authors treat the family as the relevant decision-making unit. It is analyzed how the results of majority voti ng on mandatory public pension and sickness funds depend on time pref erence, the overall rate of population growth, and the distribution o f children across families. Copyright 1987 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG