Demographic changes and social transformations affect the design of public pension systems. Population ageing and factors such as the progressive reduction in fertility rates and the increase in longevity have a direct impact on the sustainability of public pensions, especially in...

Concern about the long-term sustainability of European public pension systems has been a permanent feature for decades due to the unstoppable ageing of the population, but demographic change is not the only factor of concern. A deep economic and financial crisis has been added to this structural...

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...

Many countries all over the world have been facing the problem of deteriorating demographics, forcing reforms of the pension system model as well as its main parameters. An important perspective of the assessment of the financial sustainability of a pension system is the division of current GDP...

The aim of this chapter is to review the main instruments and indicators used to measure the sustainability of PAYG pension systems. It will distinguish between defined contribution and defined benefit systems, due to the various implications that each of them has. It will also be necessary to...

Fairness is an important feature of pension systems, but it is a wide concept with multiple sides. In this chapter, we try to distinguish some of them with the aim of using the terms in a proper manner. More specifically, we have observed at least five meanings for the notion of fairness when...

Pensions are the main source of income in old age. Their main value is provided, in most countries, by public pension systems. Therefore, one of the main challenges for governments and policymakers is to enable people to smooth consumption over the life cycle in an appropriate scale. This...

Longevity insurance benefits are deferred annuities that start payment at an advanced age at which a substantial proportion of the birth cohort has died. In high-income countries, that would mean that these annuities would start for people in their early 80s, but when social security programs...

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...

Retirement systems across the world are undergoing major reforms to adapt to continuously changing economic and demographic factors. Among these major changes are the so-called notional defined contribution pension schemes (NDCs), first developed about 20 years ago in countries such as Italy,...