March 2018

The troubled state of pension systems in Latin America

By Augusto de la Torre and Heinz P. Rudolph A quarter of a century since Chilean-style pension reforms swept Latin America, the state of the region’s pension systems is worrisome. Old and new problems are increasingly rearing their ugly heads, some setting off serious alarms, all posing thorny political and technical challenges. Pension issues have therefore once again taken center stage in the policy debate. This paper provides a bird’s eye view of the quilt-like landscape of contributory pensions systems...