法国养老金改革:走向三支柱?

Pension Reform in France:Towards the Three Pillars?

法国是欧洲最早建立养老金制度的国家之一,该制度长期由一根支柱——现收现付的公共养老金支柱组成。从20世纪70年代末期起,在人口不断老龄化、经济持续低靡等因素影响下,该制度陷入了收支失衡、难以为继的境地,亟需改革。进入20世纪90年代,法国启动了改革,改革遵循了和其他欧洲国家大致相同的路径,即在对公共养老金"开源节流"的同时引入基金积累制的支柱,以缓解单一支柱的财政风险。受原有制度安排的制约,基金制的引入在法国较为艰难,最终在外力作用下克服来自工会的阻力,初步形成了三支柱的养老金体系。不过与其他国家相比,法国的基金制发育缓慢,改革后公共养老金依然占据绝对优势地位。这一方面使法国的养老金制度继续发挥着较高水平的"团结共济"作用,但另一方面,养老金的"可持续"问题依然较为突出。因此未来,法国将在坚持公共养老金核心地位不变、确保社会公正的同时,适当提升基金制的占比,以确保养老制度可持续。

The public pension system in France was once featured as pay-as-you-go financing model. However, since the late 1970 s, the French public pension system has been trapped in a predicament of unsustainability. France began to reform the pension system since the beginning of 1990 s, following the same path as other European countries, cutting expenditure on public pensions and introducing funded pensions. However, the reform was difficult due to institutional inertia. With the help of the external forces, France overcame the resistance from trade unions and formed a multi-pillar pension system. Yet the funded pillars develop slowly and account for a very small proportion of the system compared to other European countries, while the whole pension system is still dominated by the pay-as-you-go pillar. On the other hand, the French pension model is doing well in fighting against the poverty and social exclusion and thus guaranteeing a high level of equality. In the future, while keeping the core role played by the public pension, France should increase to a certain extent the role played by funded pension, in order to improve the sustainability of the whole system.