Pension Reform, Civil Society, and Old Age Security in Latin America

2015 ◽  
pp. 393-411
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Angel ◽  
Javier Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Old Age Security

scholarly journals Are Old-age Pension System Reforms Moving Away from Individual Retirement Accounts in Latin America?

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
ESTEBAN CALVO ◽  
FABIO M. BERTRANOU ◽  
EVELINA BERTRANOU
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Pension System ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Pension Policy ◽  
Individual Retirement Accounts ◽  
New Politics ◽  
Retirement Accounts

AbstractThis article reviews two rounds of pension reform in ten Latin American countries to determine whether they are moving away from individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Although the idea is provocative, we conclude that the notion of ‘moving away from IRAs’ is insufficient to characterise the new politics of pension reform. As opposed to the politics of enactment of IRAs of the late twentieth century, pension reform in Latin America in recent years has combined significant revival of public components in old-age income maintenance with improvement of IRAs. Clearly, the policy prescriptions that were most influential during the first round of reforms in Latin America have been re-evaluated. The World Bank and other organisations that promoted IRAs have recognised that pension reform should pay more attention to poverty reduction, coverage and equity, and to protect participants from market risks. The experience and challenges faced by countries that introduced IRAs, the changes in policies by international financing institutions, and the recent financial volatility and heavy losses experienced in financial markets may have tempered the enthusiasm of other countries from applying the same type of reforms. Scholars and policy-makers around the globe could benefit from looking closely at these changes in pension policy.

Elephants on the move. Patterns of public pension reform in OECD countries

2000 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Hinrichs
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Universal Coverage ◽  
Oecd Countries ◽  
Public Pension ◽  
Occupational Pension ◽  
Old Age Security ◽  
Pension Schemes ◽  
The 1960S

Among OECD countries there are two clusters of old-age security systems: (1) ‘Social insurance’ countries had, by the end of the 1960s, fashioned the core of old-age security as public, contributory, earnings-related and unfunded insurance schemes; (2) a diverse collection of countries that, after 1970, topped up their basic pension arrangements with funded occupational pension schemes with (almost) universal coverage. ‘Social insurance’ countries, on which this essay focuses, reveal at least six common trends in pension reform, all about improving the financial sustainability of public schemes. Although the repertoire of incremental adjustment strategies is quite limited, policy changes since the early 1980s have not led to a clear convergence among ‘social insurance’ countries (or across the two clusters). Their original diversity has been somewhat diminished, but it has for the most part merely taken a different form. Public pension reforms regularly harmed (future) beneficiaries. Nevertheless, most reforms were actually based on broad political consensus. The success of attempts to introduce retrenchment policies depends on prior negotiation with – and support obtained from – collective actors above and beyond a simple parliamentary majority. This peculiar prerequisite ensures success in the sense of a sustained implementation of the measures taken and of actual improvement in public trust in ‘reliable’ pension schemes.

Staatlich geforderte Altersvorsorge als Losung der Rentenproblematik?

2002 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Raffelhüschen ◽  
Johann Eekhoff ◽  
Markus Jankowski ◽  
Michael Voigtländer ◽  
Bert Rürup
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Security System ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Pension Scheme ◽  
Private Saving ◽  
Old Age Security

AbstractIn this paper Bernd Raffelhüschen gives some insights into the political decision making process which changed the latest German pension reform from a fundamental step towards sustainability into a reform to be reformed. Nevertheless, he explains that the pension reform still bears a fundamental change, since it reduced transfers and at the same time opened for tax-preferred private and occupational pension plans. Hence, his paper investigates how these measures are developing presently and will develop in the future. Finally, some educated guesstimates are derived concerning those further reform steps to be undertaken in order to ensure the sustainability of a reduced pay-as-you-go scheme in future Germany.In their contribution, Johann Eekhoff, Markus Jankowski and Michael Voigtländer discuss the pros and cons of the Riester pension scheme. This so called “Riesterrente” involves a taxation scheme which can be regarded as a first step towards a consumption based taxation and can be justified in order to maintain intertemporal neutrality. The additional financial support for families and low-income earners, however, is neither based on efficiency grounds nor on a reasonable way of redistribution. The financial advantages are only granted if the capital investment is made in approved types of financial services. These restraints on capital investment will distort the functioning of the capital market which might lead to reduced economic growth and unemployment. Therefore, the authors conclude that the favouring of certain types of private saving should be abolished for the benefits of introducing consumption based taxation.Bert Rürup argues that central issues of last year’s pension legislation were a limitation of the growth of expenditures and as a result also a limitation of the expansion of the contribution rate as well as a redistribution in favour of younger generations as a precondition for intergenerational justice. The simultaneous reduction of the pay-as-you-go financed first pillar of old-age security while strengthening the funded pillars of old-age security helped to reach those targets.In his paper he argues that at the same time it was politically decided to melt down - in relative terms - the extent of the first pillar while simultaneously preserve the function of the old-age security system as an instrument to secure the standard of living after retirement. That also meant not to cut back the statutory pension insurance to a flat rate system in the long run. It should together with benefits from private systems guarantee - on the average - to keep up the income position reached in the period of professional activity also after retirement. This specific target makes state subsidization of private old-age security plans inevitable. The only alternative would be to turn the mandatory system into a compulsory one which would be the “cheaper” solution. The author states that compulsory saving for old-age security purposes versus targeted subsidization has distributive disadvantages and would hamper basic rules of market economy. And it would in Germany be impossible to be introduced due to political reasons.If for normativ reasons (“lean state”) the state organized old-age security system should be reduced e.g. like in Great Britain to the level of a system that provides protection against poverty, consequently state subsidization of private saving for old age purposes must be rejected. The first question to be answered is: Should state old-age security policy be directed towards maintaining the standard of living reached in working life or should it create only something like basic security? If that question is being answered in favour of the first, then a discussion on the nature and extent of state subsidization of private saving for old age purposes makes sense.

Perspectives on Pensions in Eastern Europe

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharina Müller
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Defined Contribution ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Old Age Security ◽  
Defined Contribution Plans

The dramatic political and economic changes witnessed by Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Former Soviet Union (FSU) since the late 1980s did not leave the area of old-age security unaffected. While the inherited pension systems were rather uniform, the past seventeen years have brought diversity to the region's retirement schemes. Most transition countries have opted for parametric reforms, thus changing key characteristics of their pre-existing pay-as-you-go schemes. A number of countries in the region have embarked on partial or full pension privatization, thereby following the much advertised Latin American role models. Moreover, some countries have introduced national defined-contribution plans, similar to the schemes of Sweden and Italy. Overall, contributory approaches to old-age security — whether publicly or privately organized — dominate the post-socialist pension reform agenda. This chapter outlines the pre-1989 legacy in old-age security and the impact of transformation on the existing retirement schemes. It reviews pension reforms in CEE and the FSU and evaluates the state of pension reform in the post-socialist world.

scholarly journals National Pension Reform and Old-Age Security System in KoreaNational Pension Reform and Old-Age Security System in Korea - -

2007 ◽  
Vol null (28) ◽  
pp. 55-74
Author(s):  
김진수 ◽  
이승영(한국보건사회연구원 연구원)
Keyword(s):  
Old Age ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Security System ◽  
Old Age Security

scholarly journals Transformation als Lateinamerikanisierung?

1999 ◽  
Vol 28 (112) ◽  
pp. 459-483
Author(s):  
Katharin Müller
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Pension Reforms ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Old Age Security ◽  
Central Eastern ◽  
Reform Debate

The recent pension reforms in Central-Eastern Europe include partial privatisation of old age security and are clearly modelled on Latin American role models, thus reflecting the current mainstream in the international pension reform debate. This article asks for the rationale behind this institutional transfer, focusing on structural settings, actor constellations and the consequences of radical paradigmatic choice in Polish and Hungarian old age security.

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