Whitehouse, Edward (2007): Pensions panorama: retirement-income systems in 53 countries.
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Abstract
Reforming pensions is a central policy issue in developed and developing countries alike. However, it is challenging and controversial because it involves long-term planning by governments faced with numerous short-term pressures. Pension reform usually provokes heated ideological debates and, often, street protests.
There are valuable lessons to be learned from other countries’ pension systems and their experiences of retirement-income reforms. However, national pension systems are very complicated and international comparisons are consequently very difficult. Many international analyses get bogged down in institutional, technical, and legal detail, making it impossible to transfer policy lessons between countries. This study combines painstaking, rigorous analysis with clear, easy-to-understand presentation of empirical results.
Pensions Panorama does not advocate any particular kind of pension system or type of pension reform. We hope the analysis in this report can inform debates on retirement-income systems by presenting “hard” data that people with different visions for the future of pensions can all use as a reference point.
International comparisons of retirement-income regimes to date have tended to focus on the question of fiscal and financial sustainability: whether the pension promises made to today’s workers will be affordable in the future. Much less attention has been paid to the future adequacy of pension benefits, to the impact of pension reforms on the distribution of income among older people, and on the means to combat old-age poverty. These issues, which may be termed social sustainability, are a core concern of this study.
The OECD published the report Pensions at a Glance: Public Policies across OECD Countries in 2005. This study extends the analysis to cover 23 countries that are not members of the OECD. These nations lie in three different regions of the world: Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa.
Together, the countries covered in this report account for a quarter of the world’s population and approximately 58 percent of workers around the world who are covered by formal pension systems.
Item Type: | MPRA Paper |
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Original Title: | Pensions panorama: retirement-income systems in 53 countries |
Language: | English |
Keywords: | pensions; retirement |
Subjects: | H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H55 - Social Security and Public Pensions J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J26 - Retirement ; Retirement Policies |
Item ID: | 14797 |
Depositing User: | Edward Whitehouse |
Date Deposited: | 23 Apr 2009 03:20 |
Last Modified: | 27 Sep 2019 05:50 |
References: | Keenay, G., and E. R. Whitehouse. 2002a. “Taxing Pensioners.” In Taxing Wages. Paris: OECD. 2003. Keenay, G., and E. R. Whitehouse. 2002b. “The Role of the Personal Tax System in Old-Age Support: A Survey of 15 Countries.” Discussion Paper 02/07, Centre for Pensions and Superannuation, University of New South Wales, Sydney. Keenay, G., and E. R. Whitehouse. 2003a. “Financial Resources and Retirement in Nine OECD Countries: The Role of the Tax System.” Social, Employment, and Migration Working Paper 8, OECD, Paris. Keenay, G., and E. R. Whitehouse. 2003b. “The Role of the Personal Tax System in Old-Age Support: A Survey of 15 Countries.” Fiscal Studies 24 (1): 1–21. Mattil, B., and E. R. Whitehouse. Forthcoming. “Individual Incentives to Switch between Public and Private Pension Schemes.” Social, Employment, and Migration Working Paper, OECD, Paris. OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). 2003. Taxing Wages. Paris: OECD. OECD. 2005. Pensions at a Glance: Public Policies across OECD Countries. Paris: OECD. Palacios, R. J., and E. R. Whitehouse. 2006. “Civil-Service Pension Schemes Around the World.” Pension Reform Series, Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0602, World Bank, Washington, DC. Queisser, M., and E. R. Whitehouse. 2006. “Comparing the Pension Promises of 30 OECD Countries.” International Social Security Review 59 (3): 49–77. Robalino, D., E. R. Whitehouse, et al. 2005. Pensions in Middle East and North Africa: Time for Change. Washington, DC: World Bank. Vordring, H., and K. Goudswaard. 1997. “Indexation of Public Pension Benefits on a Legal Basis: Some Experiences in European Countries.” International Social Security Review 50 (3): 31–44. Weaver, R. K. 1988. Automatic Government: The Politics of Indexation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Whitehouse, E. R. 2000. “Administrative Charges for Funded Pensions: Measurement Concepts, International Comparison, and Assessment.” Journal of Applied Social Science Studies 120 (3): 311–61. Whitehouse, E. R. 2001. “Administrative Charges for Funded Pensions: Comparison and Assessment of 13 Countries.” In Private Pension Systems: Administrative Costs and Reforms, Private Pensions Series. Vol. 3. Paris: OECD. Whitehouse, E. R. 2002. “Pension Systems in 15 Countries Compared: The Value of Entitlements.” Discussion Paper 02/04, Centre for Pensions and Superannuation, University of New South Wales, Sydney. |
URI: | https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/id/eprint/14797 |