The Economy of Catalonia

9
Pensions in an independent
Catalonia
Núria Bosch and Marta Espasa
(Translated by Miquel Strubell)
Introduction
This chapter aims to show that, if Catalonia were to become independent,
it could cover the cost of payments to pensioners and other groups
because the number of contributors is high, owing to its economic activity,
and the volume of contributions is sufficient to cover the cost. We
show that pensions and other benefits are less sustainable, in fact, if Catalonia
is part of Spain, than if it is a State in its own right. To analyse this
issue we present, on the one hand, the income obtained by the Spanish
Social Security General Treasury (Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social)
in Catalonia in the form of contributions and, on the other, the
Treasury’s expenditure in the form of benefits, including those for retirement,
unemployment, widowhood, sickness, and so on. 52 The chapter
has four sections, the first of which is this brief introduction. The second
section examines the main components of Social Security contributions
and pensions, and in the third calculations are carried out to demonstrate
the viability of the pensions system in an independent Catalonia. Finally,
the main conclusions are drawn.
52. The results presented are taken from Bosch (2013)
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