Sorry, I found the solution: it has to do with space before and after the = sign. So this works:
$$\sum_{a=a_{RA}}^{a_{max_c}}P_{c,a}\left(\frac{1}{1+r}\right)^{a-a_0}=\sum_{a=a_0}^{a_{RA}-1}C_{c,a}\left(\frac{1}{1+r}\right)^{a-a_0}$$
I thought that space didn’t count in LaTeX. Nevertheless, why this only not renders in Obsidian?
But I don’t understand why this renders:
$$\begin{aligned}
a &=\text{Age index}\\
a_0 &=\text{Age of entrance into the labour force}
\end{aligned}$$
But this does not:
$$\begin{aligned}
a &=\text{Age index}\\
a_0 &=\text{Age of entrance into the labour force}\\
a_{RA} &=\text{Retirement age}\\
a_{max_c} &=\text{Maximum age/end of pension period of cohort \(c\)}\\
P_{c,a} &=\text{Pension payments to cohort \(c\) at age \(a\)}\\
r &=\text{internal rate of return}\\
C_{c,a} &=\text{Contribution payments by cohort \(c\) at age \(a\)}
\end{aligned}$$