Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

February 2017

Adequacy, Fairness and Sustainability of Pay-as-You-Go-Pension-Systems: Defined Benefit Versus Defined Contribution

By Jennifer Alonso-García, María el Carmen Boado-Penas & Pierre Devolder There are three main challenges facing public pension systems. First, pension systems need to provide an adequate income for pensioners in the retirement phase. Second, participants wish a fair level of benefits in relation to the contributions paid. Last but no least, the pension system would need to be financially sustainable in the long run. In this paper, we analyse defined benefit versus defined contribution schemes in terms of adequacy,...

Can Low Income Countries Afford Basic Social Protection? First Results of a Modelling Exercise

By Karuna Pal, Christina Behrendt, Florian Leger, Michael Cichon & Krysztof Hagemejer This report presents the methodology and the results of a modelling exercise that demonstrates that basic social protection benefits are not out of reach for low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, even though some international assistance would be necessary for a transitory period. The Social Protection Sector of the International Labour Organization (ILO) has estimated the cost of basic social protection benefits education, health, pensions) for a selected number...

The Rise of Pension Fund Capitalism in Europe: An Unseen Revolution?

By Adam Dixon In recent years European countries have begun to reform their pension systems favouring funded to pay-as-you-go (PAYG) social security systems and supporting the creation of more 2nd and 3rd pillar funded retirement schemes. Though funded pensions remain small in most European countries, they are growing significantly and may limit the persistence of strong 'varieties of capitalism' by providing an endogenous source of change to economic organisation and corporate governance. To explore this scenario this article examines recent...

The FinTech Opportunity

By Thomas Philippon This paper assesses the potential impact of FinTech on the finance industry, focusing on financial stability and access to services. I document first that financial services remain surprisingly expensive, which explains the emergence of new entrants. I then argue that the current regulatory approach is subject to significant political economy and coordination costs, and therefore unlikely to deliver much structural change. FinTech, on the other hand, can bring deep changes but is likely to create significant regulatory...

Austerity, ageing and the financialisation of pensions policy in the UK

By Craig Berry This article offers a detailed analysis of the recent history of pensions policy in the United Kingdom, culminating in two apparent `revolutions' in policy now underway: the introduction of `automatic enrolment' into private pensions, and proposals for a new `single-tier' state pension. These reforms are considered exemplary of the `financialisation' of UK welfare provision -- typified in pensions policy by the notion that individuals must take personal responsibility for their own long-term financial security, and engage intimately...

Defined ambition pensions – Have the Dutch found the golden mean for retirement savings?

By Erik Schouten & Thurstan Robinson In February 2012, the UK minister for pensions proposed that companies should perhaps be able to provide a new type of pension – Defi ned Aspiration pensions or Defi ned Ambition (DA) pensions, as they are called in the Netherlands. In this article, we take a closer look at DA pensions, examining the Dutch experiences to date with the introduction of DA pensions . We look at what DA pensions have to offer employers...

Shrouded costs of government: The political economy of state and local public pensions

By Edward L. Glaeser, Giacomo A M Ponzetto Why do public-sector workers receive so much of their compensation in the form of pensions and other benefits? This paper presents a political economy model in which politicians compete for taxpayers' and government employees' votes by promising compensation packages, but some voters cannot evaluate every aspect of promised compensation. If pension packages are "shrouded," so that public-sector workers better understand their value than ordinary taxpayers, then compensation will be highly back-loaded. In...

Beyond Contributory Pensions : Fourteen Experiences with Coverage Expansion in Latin America

By Rafael Rofman, Ignacio Apella and Evelyn Vezza Latin America's population is aging, and many among the growing elderly population are not protected by traditional pension schemes. In response, policy makers have been reevaluating their income protection systems so that between 2000 and 2013, the majority of Latin American countries reformed their social pension schemes to provide near-universal coverage for the elderly. Before this unprecedented wave of reform, most income protection in Latin America was provided through contributory pensions available...

Building Voluntary Pension Schemes in Emerging Economies

By Rodolph Heinz After the financial crisis, some Central and Eastern Europe countries partially or totally reversed the pension reforms they had initiated in the previous two decades. In the presence of an aging population in the region, reductions in replacement rates will be the most likely adjustment mechanism for the social security systems to remain fiscally sustainable. In some other emerging economies, mandatory funded schemes are operating with low contribution rates, and policy makers have not been able to...

Outcome Based Assessments for Private Pensions : A Handbook

By William Price, John Ashcroft and Michael Hafeman This report illustrates a new methodology to develop an Outcomes and Risk Based Supervision (ORBS) framework for funded pensions with a case study of Costa Rica. The approach was used in a FIRST funded project in Costa Rica with the regulator and supervisor of pensions SUPEN. The intention is to highlight an approach that may be useful in the region, and globally, to help agencies responsible for private pensions to focus on...