Old-age pension systems can be classified according to three aspects: funded versus unfunded systems (pay-as-you-go), actuarial versus non-actuarial systems, and defined benefit (DB) versus defined contribution (DC) systems.Several European countries have (or had) public old-age pension schemes...

In this chapter, we analyse the effects of PAYG and funded pension systems on welfare. The debate on the choice between alternative systems focuses on their effects on savings, capital accumulation, labour supply, economic growth and inequality and the potential benefits of mixed systems in...

This chapter deals with the French PAYGO mandatory occupational pension scheme for the private sector workers (AGIRC-ARRCO), one of the world's oldest pension point systems. In a first section, we trace the history of the setup of this system which relies on a particular mode of governance...

In classical pension design, there are essentially two kinds of pension schemes: Defined Benefit (DB) and Defined Contribution (DC) plans. Each scheme corresponds to a different philosophy of spreading risk between the stakeholders: in a DB, the main risks are taken by the organizer of the plan,...

In pay-as-you go pension systems, automatic balancing mechanisms (ABMs) are designed to face adverse demographic and economic changes. In this respect, ABMs can be defined as a set of pre-determined measures established by law to be applied immediately as required according to an indicator that...