The ageing of society means that public pension systems are becoming increasingly important. This study evaluates the influence of public pension entitlements on wealth inequality among pensioners. A novel data source - the Eurosystem Household Finance and Consumption Survey – is used to compare the impact of the public pension system on wealth inequality in 19 European countries. Findings indicate that in all investigated countries, social security wealth reduces wealth inequality. Augmented wealth inequality is ca. 30% lower than private wealth inequality. This estimate refers to the population of pensioners, while in the whole population the equalizing impact of public pension systems may be weaker. Social security wealth mitigates not only wealth inequality measured at the country level, but also wealth inequality in the whole European Union.

社会老龄化意味着公共养老金制度变得越来越重要。本研究评估了公共养老金权利对养老金领取者之间财富不平等的影响。一个新颖的数据来源——欧元体系家庭金融和消费调查——被用来比较公共养老金制度对 19 个欧洲国家财富不平等的影响。调查结果表明，在所有接受调查的国家中，社会保障财富减少了财富不平等。加剧的财富不平等是 ca。比私人财富不平等低 30%。这一估计指的是养老金领取者的人口，而在整个人口中，公共养老金制度的均等化影响可能较弱。社会保障财富不仅缓解了国家层面的财富不平等，也缓解了整个欧盟的财富不平等。