The Evaluation of Pension Reforms in the Public Sector: A Case Study of the Paris Subway Drivers

The actuarial cost of a worker, per year of service, is the expected discounted sum of net real wages and pension benefits earned by a worker over her life cycle, divided by the number of years of service. We show the possibility of reforms such that (i) the actuarial cost of a worker per year of service is reduced, (ii) the utility of workers does not decrease, and (iii) the pension fund deficits do not increase. We propose a quantitative analysis of the 2008 reform of the Paris Metro pensions as an illustration.