Public pension and wealth inequality in Canada

Abstract

A methodology for estimating public pension wealth is presented and employed to cross-sectional data of Canadian households. Public pension wealth is measured as the present value of the future stream of benefits from public retirement savings plans in Canada. These plans include the Canada/Quebec pension plan, old age security and guaranteed income supplements. The results show that public pension wealth constituted 47% of household entitlement wealth and that the provision of public pension benefits significantly reduced wealth inequality in Canada.