"Formal pension systems are an important means of reducing poverty among the aged. In recent years, however, pension reform has become a pressing matter, as demographic aging, poor administration, early retirement, and unaffordable benefits have strained pension balances and overall public finances. Pension systems have become a source of macroeconomic instability, a constraint to economic growth, and an ineffective and/or inequitable provider of retirement income."

Around the world, pension reform remains at the center of public debate. Its social, fiscal, and macroeconomic implications confront policy makers, practitioners, and academia with challenging questions. Pension systems in aging societies--in need of reform and further stressed by the pressures of globalization--require parallel reforms of the labor market and effective lifelong learning, not only to promote working longer, but to ensure that people can actually do so. At the same time, the working population should be motivated to contribute to pension schemes and prepare for old age. Diversify.

'Given the highly specialised subject matter, which so easily degenerates into rather tedious calculations, this book is really amazingly interesting and competently executed.' - The late Mark Blaug, formerly of the University of London and University of Buckingham, UK

"Based primarily on papers delivered at Pension Reform in English-Speaking Caribbean Countries : an International Symposium and Policy Seminar, which was held June 4-6, 2003, at the Caribbean Development Bank's Conference Centre in Wildey, St. Michael, Barbados"--Acknowledgments.

Comprehensive reform of China s pension and social security system is an essential element of achieving its objectives of a harmonious society and sustainable development.

This book presents 25 state of the art papers on the conceptual foundations and issues surrounding Non-financial, or Notional, Defined Contribution (NDC), country implementation of NDC (Italy, Latvia, Poland, and Sweden) and case studies for countries where NDC is figured in the reform debate. This book is intended to be a handbook for academics and policy makers who want to become informed about what NDC is and to learn about the pros and cons of this attractive reform proposal.

This book focuses on the public pension reform in China from both institutional and empirical studies perspectives. It introduces the process of the public pension reform in China and investigates its effects on households and firms’ behaviors and individuals’ well-being. It provides the reader with rich academic evidence for understanding the transformation of public pension and its effect on the household consumption, participating in risky financial market, and firms’ decision making on wage and employment, as well as individuals’ well-being. The main content of this book comprises three parts: (i) institutional transitions and issues on public pensions in China; (ii) the impact of public pensions on households or firms’ behaviors in China; and (iii) the impact of public pensions on well-being in China. This book provides rich academic evidence about these issues based on economic theories and econometric methods using many kinds of Chinese nationwide representative survey data. This book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in up-to-date and in-depth empirical studies on the issues of public pension reform, and its impact on individuals, households, and firms’ behaviors as well as well-being in China. This book is of interest to those who are interested in the Chinese economy, social security policymakers, and scholars with an econometric analysis background.

Latin American experiments with pension reform began when Chile converted its public pay-as-you-go system to a system of private individual accounts in the early 1980s. Several other Latin American countries then followed suit, inspired both by Chile's reforms and by World Bank recommendations stressing compulsory government-mandated individual saving accounts. Individual accounts were subsequently introduced in a number of countries in Europe and Asia. Many are now re-evaluating these privatisations in an effort to 'reform the reform' to make these systems more efficient and equitable. This volume is the first to assess pension reforms in this new 'post-privatization' era. After a discussion on demographic trends in the foreword by Nobel laureate Robert W. Fogel, Section 1 of the book includes chapters on the role of pension system default options, the impact of gender, and a discussion of the World Bank's policies on pension reform. The chapter on the evidence from Chile's new social protection survey points to key lessons from the world's first privatization. Section 2 offers in-depth analysis of several significant reform initiatives in the hemisphere, and includes chapters on the United States, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay and Argentina. The volume provides an unparalleled account of the lessons from pension reform in the Americas, addressing the most pressing policy issues and highlighting a broad range of country experiences.

IFC Lessons of Experience No. 1F. This report reviews the experience of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in its role as advisor and investor in privatization transactions during the past decade. In pursuit of its mandate to further economic development by encouraging the growth of productive private enterprise in developing countries, the IFC has naturally and increasingly been involved in supporting this movement. The premise of the report is that privatization will always be partly based on political considerations, including expected redistribution of wealth and the resulting winners and losers. It discusses the IFC's experience from two perspectives: as an advisor involved before the sale, which illustrates how the IFC assists in the trade-off between political and economic goals to conclude a deal; and after privatization, which discusses the resulting economic benefits. The IFC asserts that its role in privatization is defined by the evolving frontiers of political commitment. Within those frontiers, it can help expand privatization possibilities by performing advisory assignments, providing necessary investments, and developing capital market institutions. The IFC demonstrates that privatization strategies can assume many forms with few set prescriptions. Other language editions: English (ISBN 0-8213-3447-6) Stock No. 13447 Russian -out of print-(ISBN 0-8213-3545-6) Stock No. 13545 Spanish -out of print-(ISBN 0-8213-3451-4) Stock No. 13451.

February 1997 Ukraine's pension system requires radical reforms to restore credibility to the system and remove distorted incentives that make it unsustainable. Resumption of growth alone will not solve the current difficulties. In recent years -as a result of economic contraction, declining employment and real wages, and changes in labor market behavior- Ukraine's tax base of the social security system has declined, threatening its sustainability. About 40 percent of the labor force works in the informal sector, paying no taxes, and many members of the formal workforce underpay taxes because they also do informal work. Using a model that links the social security system, the labor market, and the macroeconomy, the authors ran simulations to assess the sustainability of the current pension system and the relevance and viability of possible reforms. All simulations assume economic reform and the resumption of growth. They conclude: (1) Economic contraction is not the only cause of problems with the pension system. To reverse current trends, most of the labor force would need to be working in the formal sector -an unlikely event, given current incentives. (2) Reform is essential. Restoring the former system would be too costly, and maintaining the status quo would make the system unsustainable. ((3) Reforms focusing on short-term budgetary effects and neglecting the interactions between the social security and the labor market are likely to fail. (4) Raising the retirement age to 65 would have a significant financial impact, but would need to be accompanied by deeper structural reforms. Raising the retirement age quickly may entail the least political cost, as many old people are currently working. (5) For the deeper structural reforms needed, introducing a funded-tier should be considered. It would be an effective way to correct distortions and restore credibility. (6) Introducing such reforms will be costly and affect several generations of workers and pensioners in different ways. Tradeoffs must be carefully evaluated. This paper--a product of the Country Operations Division 2, Country Department IV, Europe and Central Asia Region--is part of a larger effort in the region to foster pension reforms. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under research project Social Safety and Growth: An Analysis of Interactions and Tradeoffs (RPO 680-35).