The paper examines social security (public pension) reforms in which the programme is partially shifted from a public unfunded basis to a private, prefunded, basis. It focuses on reforms where individuals have a choice in switching from public funded to private unfunded programmes (as in the...

Reforming pensions looms large over the policy agenda of OECD countries. This is hardly surprising since public spending on pensions accounted on average for 7 per cent of OECD GDP in 2005; and this pension spending effort is set to increase significantly over the coming decades in response to...

Reforming pensions looms large over the policy agenda of OECD countries. This is hardly surprising since public spending on pensions accounted on average for 7 per cent of OECD GDP in 2005; and this pension spending effort is set to increase significantly over the coming decades in response to...

Pension systems are complex and comparing them across countries is therefore difficult. This paper adopts standard methodology to calculate prospective pension entitlements in nine countries. The modeling ncludes universal and resource-tested schemes, public and private earnings-related plans...

1. Economists and policymakers increasingly use the word “actuarial” in the analysis of pension systems and retirement incentives. But the debate is often confused. “Actuarial fairness” and “actuarial neutrality” are promoted loosely as desirable goals of pension reform. This paper...

The paper examines social security (public pension) reforms in which the programme is partially shifted from a public unfunded basis to a private, prefunded, basis. It focuses on reforms where individuals have a choice in switching from public funded to private unfunded programmes (as in the...

The paper examines social security (public pension) reforms in which the programme is partially shifted from a public unfunded basis to a private, prefunded, basis. It focuses on reforms where individuals have a choice in switching from public funded to private unfunded programmes (as in the...

The object of this paper is to examine the impact of type of pension scheme on retirement behaviour. The well-documented decline in the labour-force participation of older women and older men (in particular) is common to most industrialised countries. The proportion of men aged 55 to 64 in...

While other regions — Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America in particular — have been active in pension reform, the Middle East and North Africa have lagged behind. In part this is because of the belief that favourable mean financial problems are still far in the future and pension...

While personal-pension mis-selling dominated the headlines, just as costly was the over-compensation offered to younger workers to contract out of the state scheme into personal pensions. The proposal for age-related rebates outlined in this book was later taken up by the government.