Study on the distribution of taxes and transfers between generations in France.

Summary The contract calls for a study providing a complete overview of intergenerational transfers for France over a 30-year time horizon. It uses an original methodology, that of the National Transfer Accounts (NTA), which is now an international reference. The general idea is to compare what each cohort, defined as all children born in a given year, consumes and produces on a given date. By consumption, we mean consumption of market goods but also of public goods/services such as education or health. This consumption is compared with labor income (including employee and employer social security contributions) to define the cohorts that "subsidize" the cohorts that consume more than they produce. This method provides a very complete picture of all the transfers between generations in the course of a year and their deformation over time. The work defined in the contract has been carried out. The main part concerned the construction of a profile of surpluses and deficits over the life cycle, i.e. the difference at each age between labour income and private and public consumption. This was done for all years from 1979 to 2005. A gender decomposition of the "life-cycle profile" was also carried out for the period considered. The main conclusions of this study are as follows. Despite the very important economic, social and political changes that French society has undergone since the end of the 1980s, the share of transfers to those under 20 and over 60 in GDP has been remarkably stable. They reflect a collective choice for a certain equality between the ages, when the variable of interest is consumption. Moreover, when limited to market goods and services, transfers favor the over-60s over the under-20s and, among the over-60s, women over men. When domestic production is included, the situation is reversed and it is young people and men over 60 who receive the most transfers.