When and how to subsidize tax-favored pension accounts? To defend myopic workers against themselves, the government introduces a mandatory system but to help savers, it adds taxfavored retirement accounts. If the mandatory system is progressive, then a proportional voluntary system can...

The goal of this study is to present an insider view on the pension reforms implemented in Hungary between 1996 and 2009. Both political economy as well as institutional economics will be used as the main approaches to analyse and explain the reform process and some of its effects. The following...

The partial privatization of the US Social Security system was clearly the top economic policy priority for the new Bush administration. While many famous economists, publicists and politicians support, others reject the partial privatization of the Social Security system. The international...

By 2008, the Hungarian pension system has become too generous and the implied contribution rate hindered growth. When the international economic and financial crisis deprived Hungary from normal credits, its government turned to international organizations for help. The most spectacular element...

In 1998, the left-of-center government of Hungary carved out a second pillar mandatory private pension system from the original mono-pillar public system. Participation in the mixed system was optional for those who were already working, but mandatory for new entrants to the workforce. About 50...

Due to the 2008 global financial crisis the position of the private equity sector has weakened. The number and the value of new transactions have dropped together with the volume of the raised funds. Credit shares have also decreased in the financing of the transactions. Exiting from the...

Nonfinancial defined contribution (NDC) pension systems have recently become popular because they provide the strong incentives of the private funded systems without requiring a difficult transition period. Using the framework of mechanism design, these systems have theoretically been criticized...

In Hungary, the previously non-existing venture capital and private equity industry has strengthened over the past two decades, and it has become one of the leaders of the CEE region. Approximately 90% of the capital allocated to investments overall were raised from private sector investors. The...