scholarly journals The Impact of Fiscal Conservatism ; A Case Study of the 2007 National Pension System Reform in Korea

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (No. 1 Apr 2019) ◽  
pp. 17-38
Author(s):  
Jai Seop Lee

This research intends to identify the influential factors in the 2007 National Pension System (NPS) reform in Korea (the Republic of Korea) which drove the NPS toward a structural transformation. This research also examines the applicability of the theory of Clemens and Cook (1999) to the Korean policy shift, who argue that the innate driving force of a policy, an internal contradiction, can be a critical source of structural policy change. A literature review based case study was carried out in this research. The findings are as follows. Firstly, rising fiscal conservatism was the main determinant of the 2007 NPS structural reform. The processes and conditions of the reform documented were: the fiscal conservatism embedded in NPS generated serious policy problems and led to an accumulation of the internal contradictions within NPS by raising the question on its fundamental policy goal. As time passed without any self-correction mechanism with respect to the problematic policy, the NPS lost credibility in the eyes of the public and also lost policy legitimacy. At the same time, there was a competing policy alternative to the NPS. This was the universalistic tax-based Basic Old-Age Pension System. This has been a challenge to NPSin that it had been designed based on the social insurance financing principle. The pre-conditions for the structural NPS reform were fully complete and they could be exploited by self-interested political parties in the following policy-making stages. Secondly, the theoretical assumption that the internal contradiction of a policy can be a decisive power for structural transformation, as suggested by Clemens and Cook (1999) among others, was proven to be theoretically and practically accurate in the Korean public pension reform case.

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-20

The impact of the Bulgarian pension sys­tem reform, implemented with the 2015 Social Insurance Code amendment act, on the im­plicit pension debt is the main focus of the present article. Holzmann’s methodology for calculation of open group pension liabilities is used (Holzmann et al., 2004). The long term forecasting of public pension fund revenues and expenditures is made possible through Professor John Wilkin’s actuarial model, which has been prepared within the scope of the World Bank’s assistance for Bulgaria in the implementation of the pension reform. The in­put in the model consists of demographic and macroeconomic suggestions as well as social security data for the 40-year period (2015- 2055) after pension reform enactment. The impact of the pension reform’s parameters on the implicit pension debt of the Bulgarian public pension system is elaborated through scenario analysis. Among the key findings of this article are the important role of the in­creasing of retirement age and serving period, as well as the contribution size for pension, for decreasing of implicit pension debt.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Borzutzky

This article analyses and compares President Bachelet’s successful efforts to reform the Chilean pension system in 2008 and her failure to achieve the same objective in 2017. The article addresses the impact of electoral promises, policy legacies, policy ideology, presidential power, the role of the private sector, and the role that the government coalitions had in the process of pension reform during the Bachelet administrations. We argue that the 2008 reform was possible because of Bachelet’s personal commitment to reform and the presence of a stable governing coalition that had the will and capacity to legislate. In the second administration, although the policy legacies and ideology had remained the same, the reform did not materialise due to intense conflict within the administration and within the government coalition, as well as conflict between the administration and the coalition. These conflicts, in turn, generated a vicious cycle responsible for Bachelet’s declining popularity, limited political capital, and reduced support for reform. A stagnant economy further undermined these efforts. In brief, this article argues that when assessing success and failure in pension policy reform it is important to analyse not only policy legacies and political ideology but also the strength of the executive, the cohesion of the governing coalition, and the country’s economic performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fahim Ullah ◽  
Samad Sepasgozer ◽  
Faham Tahmasebinia ◽  
Saleh Mohammad Ebrahimzadeh Sepasgozar ◽  
Steven Davis

The aim of this paper is to examine students’ performance in a computation-based course by evaluating the effects of key factors including sketching, visualization resources provided to them during the lectures, their attendance and tutors’ experience. A systematic review was conducted including 192 articles published during January 2010 to December 2019. Further, a case study has been conducted in which 633 students from non-engineering backgrounds were taught a core course of construction over three-yearly sessions from 2017 to 2019. The performance has been assessed through two quizzes of 10% weight each, assignment of 40% weight and a final exam with 30% weight in 2017-18 and 40% weight in 2019 were utilized with an attendance criterion of below 75% as low attendance. The statistical result highlights that a clear difference of 14% overall marks exist between the students with less than 75% attendance and the ones with 75% and above in 2017 and a 10% gap in 2018. Students with high marks in sketching secured higher overall marks as compared to others highlighting that the sketching skill is useful to construction students. The findings contribute to the body of education knowledge by evaluating key influential factors and provide a useful benchmark to other educators in the field. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (149) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Christoph Freudenberg ◽  
Frederik Toscani

Past reforms have put the Peruvian pension system on a largely fiscally sustainable path, but the system faces important challenges in providing adequate pension levels for a large share of the population. Using administrative microdata at the affiliate level, we project replacement rates in the defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pillars over the next 30 years and simulate the impact of various reform scenarios on the average level and distribution of pensions. In the DB pillar, the regressive minimum contribution period should be re-thought, while in the DC pillar a broadening of the contribution base and/or an increase in contribution rates would help increase replacement rates relative to the baseline forecast of 25-33 percent. A higher net real rate of return than assumed in the baseline would also have a significant positive impact. In the medium-term, labor market reform to tackle informality, and a broad pension reform to restructure the system and avoid competition between the DB and DC pillars should be a priority. Given low pension coverage, having a strong non-contributory pillar will remain important for the foreseeable future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maka Ghaniashvili

The paper focuses on the impact of the pandemic crisis on pension system in Georgia and analyzes the pros and cons of the ongoing pension reforms in the country. Decreased birth rates and increased life expectancy over the next decades will significantly change the picture of the age distribution of the population in many countries. As life expectancy increases and the birth rate decreases, more people retire than are added to the workforce. A change in the demographic picture necessitates fundamental pension reform. At the same time, the world is facing a crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The future is uncertain, both medically and financially. Despite optimistic forecasts, the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has begun in many countries which further increases the degree of uncertainty. Funded pension schemes suffer from the crisis because lower returns diminish their asset values, while low yields on public debt instruments increase the present value of their liabilities. This can generate both explicit fiscal risks— in the case of government guarantees—and implicit fiscal risks through lower private pension benefits or financial strain on the sponsoring employers. Our research is focused on the pension system and its development problems in Georgia, taking into account that since 2019, 1st January, the existing financial, demographic and economic challenges have determined the establishment of a new pension system. Main sources for the research are data gathered from the international organizations and local governmental and statistical data softwares. Our research results show that the pension reform launched in 2019 in Georgia is a significant step forward in reducing social imbalances and fiscal pressures in the medium / long term. However, for further development, it is important to systematically assess the effectiveness of pension policies, taking into account factors such as changes in demographic structure, expected fiscal spending, the inequality gap and the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
Paul Bridgen ◽  
Traute Meyer

Public service pensions have been a fundamental component of the British pension system in the post-war period and recent reform initiatives have caused political controversy. This article assesses the impact of the Conservative/Liberal government's public sector pension reform plans of 2011 for different public sector workers. It simulates their projected pension outcomes, assuming people contribute to the new system throughout their working lives. In particular, we examine the government's claim that the move away from final to average salary schemes will make pensions fairer for women and lower paid workers. The article shows that the reforms are indeed fair, if measured by the government's standards: retirement is delayed for all, but the lowest skilled and women lose least and some even gain higher pensions without paying proportionately more. Despite austerity, recent British pension reforms reflect a greater awareness of social inequality than many would expect and they have been built on more cross-party agreement than apparent at first sight.


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIC BREIT ◽  
TONE ALM ANDREASSEN ◽  
ROBERT H. SALOMON

AbstractThe literature on policy implementation is divided with regards to the impact of street-level bureaucrats on the implementation of public policies. In this paper, we aim to add to and nuance these debates by focusing on ‘institutional work’ – i.e. the creation, maintenance and disruption of institutions – undertaken by central authorities and street-level bureaucrats during public reform processes. On the basis of a case study of the organisational implementation of a retirement pension reform in the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration, we argue that institutional work is a useful heuristic device for conceptualising the variety of responses available to street-level bureaucrats during public reforms. We also argue that the responses demonstrate the impact of street-level bureaucrats in these reforms in the context of managerial control and regulation. Finally, we argue that the effectiveness of policy change is dependent on the institutional work of street-level bureaucrats and, in particular, on institutional work that supports the institutions created by politicians and public administrations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-126
Author(s):  
Dariusz Prokopowicz

The article describes the demographic, social and economic determinants of the capital reform plan of the pillar of the pension system based on the transfer of capital from Open Pension Funds to the Individual Pension Accounts system. The purpose of the planned pension reform is to improve the efficiency of the capital pillar of the pension system. Reform should also counteract the negative impact of demographic change, i.e. the aging process, on the public finances of the participatory pension system managed by the Social Insurance Institution. From mid-2016, the Ministry of Development had present the "Capital Construction Program", that is an important pillar of economic policy developed in Poland in 2017, at press conferences organized by the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The main assumptions of this economic policy are laid down in the so plan for responsible development.


Author(s):  
Lucy Jepchoge Rono ◽  
Julius Kibet Bitok ◽  
Gordon N Asamoah

This study focused on the analysis of the impact of RBA guidelines on the return on investments of both pension funds under management and those for pension schemes. A random sample of 175 fund trustees and a census of 13 fund managers from registered fund management companies participated in the survey. The questionnaire was administered through the drop-and-pick method. Data were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) and summarized in descriptive statistics, such as mean, standard deviation, frequencies, percentages, and t-tests for mean differences were used. The study determined that annual investment return for retirement benefits schemes in the past three years ranged between 10 and 27.52%, sometimes falling below the annual inflation.  The Kenya pension funds are in compliance with the prescribed broad guidelines with regard to maximum percentages of total asset value of fund by the RBA Act. They are, however, moderately in compliance with the regulations requiring that that they maintain an actuarial solvency of 80% and above. The overall weighted returns before the implementation of RBA Guidelines was low (average scale of 1.9) while the weighted returns after the implementation of RBA Guidelines was high, at an average scale of 3.7. An analysis of the trend, however, showed that long-run performance has slowed down. The highest growth was realized for mortgage and cash returns as opposed to rights issues and bonus shares. There is need to fashion out the appropriate mix of reforms suitable for Kenya that will ensure the long-run sustainability of its pension systems. The challenge is for the country to adopt a unified, harmonized, and transparent regulatory framework that will integrate the pension system in order to ensure sustainability in its financing and mobilizing of adequate funds to cater for the ever-increasing population of beneficiaries in this regard, comprehensive pension reform policy with wider target radar and one that will consolidate and harmonize the various legislations touching on retirement benefits industry in line with Retirement Benefits Act. The Regulator needs to implement measures to ensure pension funds are insulated from inflationary and other risks.  An effective way is to institute a pension risk insurance fund that will underwrite and compensate such losses as will be prescribed. Further, there is need for a systematic indexation of benefits to inflation. RBA should strengthen its compliance and enforcement function in order to ensure that it appropriately deals with emerging present and future regulatory challenges.


Author(s):  
Jue WANG

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.從世界範園看,代際公平早已經是一個與養老金改革、醫療資源配置等問題深度捆綁的核心議題。代際公平危機首先凸顯在養老金赤字上,並進一步危及到社會養老保險制度的公平性,危及到養老保障制度的基礎--代際契約。就倫理層面而言,如何在老齡化的壓力重構代際契約成為決定代際公平辯論走向的關鍵。本文擬簡述目前在代際公平辯論中佔主導地位的解釋範式,並批判性地審查其倫理意蘊與局限性。在此基礎上,本文擬提供一種基於儒家倫理思想的替代性的解釋範式。本文試圖論證儒家倫理及其蘊含的代際契約不僅為解決代際公平問題提供了新的思路,而且也為當前中國養老制度改革提供一些重要的政策建議。From a global perspective, generational equity has long been a core issue in pension reform and medical resource allocation. Indeed, discussion of generational equity involves a financial crisis related to pension deficits and the fairness of the pension system, which is a crisis that threatens the ethical foundation of the social insurance institution, i.e., the intergenerational contract. From an ethical perspective, how to reconstruct the intergenerational contract under the pressure of aging is crucial to the debate on generational equity. This study critically examines the dominant framework of the debate on generational equity and proposes an alternative interpretation framework based on Confucian ethics. Finally, this study argues that Confucian ethics and the interpretation of the intergenerational contract not only shed new light on the issue of generational equity but also provide important policy implications for the current pension system reform in China.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 33 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document