January 2019

Reversing Pension Privatization: Rebuilding Public Pension Systems in Eastern European and Latin American Countries (2000-18)

By Isabel Ortiz (United Nations - International Labour Organization (ILO); Initiative for Policy Dialogue), Fabio Duran (International Labour Organization (ILO)), Stefan Urban (United Nations - International Labour Organization (ILO)), Veronika Wodsak (United Nations - International Labour Organization (ILO)), Zhiming Yu (International Labour Organization) From 1981 to 2014, thirty countries privatized fully or partially their public mandatory pensions; as of 2018, eighteen countries have reversed the privatization. This report: (i) analyses the failure of mandatory private pensions to improve old-age income...

September 2018

China's Pension Reforms: Political Institutions, Skill Formation and Pension Policy in China (China Policy Series)

By Ke Meng Existing literature has looked at many factors which have shaped Chinese pension reforms. As China’s pension reform proceeds in an expanding and localising fashion, this book argues that there is a pressing need to examine it in the context of China’s political institutions and economic transformations. The book takes a unique approach by looking at political institutions of the Chinese state and the changing conditions of the Chinese economy, which rarely receive proper treatment in the current...

China’s Pension Reforms: Political Institutions, Skill Formation and Pension Policy in China (China Policy Series)

By Ke Meng Existing literature has looked at many factors which have shaped Chinese pension reforms. As China’s pension reform proceeds in an expanding and localising fashion, this book argues that there is a pressing need to examine it in the context of China’s political institutions and economic transformations. The book takes a unique approach by looking at political institutions of the Chinese state and the changing conditions of the Chinese economy, which rarely receive proper treatment in the current...

August 2018

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: The Relationship to Youth Employment (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)

By por Jonathan Gruber ,‎ David A. Wise  Many countries have social security systems that are currently financially unsustainable. Economists and policy makers have long studied this problem and identified two key causes. First, as declining birth rates raise the share of older persons in the population, the ratio of retirees to benefits-paying employees increases. Second, as falling mortality rates increase lifespans, retirees receive benefits for longer than in the past. Further exacerbating the situation, the provisions of social security...

March 2018

The High Cost of Good Intentions: A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs

By John F. Cogan Federal entitlement programs are strewn throughout the pages of U.S. history, springing from the noble purpose of assisting people who are destitute through no fault of their own. Yet as federal entitlement programs have grown, so too have their inefficiency and their cost. Neither tax revenues nor revenues generated by the national economy have been able to keep pace with their rising growth, bringing the national debt to a record peacetime level. The High Cost of...

October 2017

Is There a Retirement Crisis? Examining Retirement Planning in the Household and Government Sectors

By Andrew G. Biggs (American Enterprise Institute) In response to a widespread perception that households are undersaving for retirement, policymakers have proposed expanding Social Security and establishing supplementary retirement saving plans run by state governments. But these proposals take place against a background of record-high unfunded liabilities for government-run retirement programs. If government entities have either financial or political difficulty funding their existing obligations to retirees, shifting greater retirement provision from households to government could potentially worsen existing shortfalls in...