MARITAL

Income inequality and its determinants are a major topic of public debate and academic research. This is particularly true, and will continue to be so, for the retired population, given the expected decrease in the level of pensions relative to earned income over the coming years. The role of marital status and behaviour in shaping income inequality between pensioners has received little attention in the literature. However, profound changes in marital behaviour in recent decades – including an increase in the proportion of unmarried individuals, civil unions, common-law unions, and separations – were initiated by the baby boom generation, which is now partly retired. These shifts will bring lasting changes to the marital structure of the retired population, with major implications in terms of inequality. The marital situation of the elderly and its evolution are therefore important for public policy. However, changes in marital status interact with changes in the pension system. The latter also plays a decisive role in income inequalities between pensioners, first because pensions are by far their main resource and second because of its insurance function, as it aims to partially reduce the disparities inherited from the unequal distribution of earned income. Redistribution, defined as a reduction in the dispersion of pensions compared to wage trajectories, is thus a central issue in the analysis of the pension system. The system also encompasses schemes directly linked to marital status, such as survivors' pensions. However, although the couple dimension appears to be one of the key elements in the analysis of pension inequalities, it is, paradoxically, currently absent from discussions and measurements of the redistribution generated by the pension system, as analyses are usually conducted at an individual level and only on one’s own pension entitlements. We might also wonder about the ‘reverse’ impact of pension schemes on the marital behaviour of older people. If the degree of protection provided by the State differs according to people's marital status, we can assume that the choice of type of union may be partly guided by this support. The aim of the Marital project is to study the role of marital status in shaping inequalities in retirement pensions among retired people. More specifically, the project has three objectives: to improve knowledge of the conjugal behaviours and conjugal events of the elderly, their determinants and changes over the generations; to identify the reciprocal channels through which marital situation and retirement situations affect each other, by analysing the interactions between marital trajectories and behaviour, retirement behaviour and the survivor’s pension system; to renew the analysis of pension inequalities and the redistributive properties of the retirement system by including the couple dimension, and to assess the effects on these of possible survivor’s pension reforms. The aim will be to develop a conceptual framework for including the couple dimension in the analysis of the redistribution of the pension system, and to develop a dynamic microsimulation model to study the impacts of possible reforms of couple-related pension schemes, survivor’s pension in particular. Adding the couple dimension to pension issues –often studied at the individual level– is now possible due to the availability of new databases, which result from unprecedented matches between individual pension data (Echantillon Interrégimes des Retraités, EIR et Echantillon Interrégimes des Cotisants, EIC) and databases containing individual and couple tax information (Échantillon démographique permanent, EDP et Fichier Démographique sur les logements et les individus, Fideli).