Lessons from Pension Reform in the Americas
Stephen J. Kay and Tapen Sinha
Abstract
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 privatizations in an effort to ‘reform the reform’ to make these systems more efficient and equitable. This b ... More
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 privatizations in an effort to ‘reform the reform’ to make these systems more efficient and equitable. This book assesses 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 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.
Keywords:
Chile,
pay-as-you-go systems,
savings,
post-privatization era,
gender and pensions,
World Bank,
social protection survey,
United States,
Canada,
Mexico
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2007 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199226801 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2008 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226801.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Stephen J. Kay, editor
Americas Center Coordinator, Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Tapen Sinha, editor
Director, International Center for Pension Research and ING Chair Professor, ITAM, Mexico and Special Professor, School of Business, University of Nottingham, UK
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