Lessons from Pension Reform in the Americas: (Pensions Research Council)

Latin American experiments with pension reform began when Chile converted its public pay-as-you-go system to a system of private individual accounts in the early 1980s. Several other Latin American countries then followed suit, inspired both by Chile's reforms and by World Bank recommendations stressing compulsory government-mandated individual saving accounts. Individual accounts were subsequently introduced in a number of countries in Europe and Asia. Many are now re-evaluating these privatisations in an effort to 'reform the reform' to make these systems more efficient and equitable. This volume is the first to assess pension reforms in this new 'post-privatization' era. After a discussion on demographic trends in the foreword by Nobel laureate Robert W. Fogel, Section 1 of the book includes chapters on the role of pension system default options, the impact of gender, and a discussion of the World Bank's policies on pension reform. The chapter on the evidence from Chile's new social protection survey points to key lessons from the world's first privatization. Section 2 offers in-depth analysis of several significant reform initiatives in the hemisphere, and includes chapters on the United States, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay and Argentina. The volume provides an unparalleled account of the lessons from pension reform in the Americas, addressing the most pressing policy issues and highlighting a broad range of country experiences.

Table of Contents:
Robert W. Fogel: Foreword: Toward an Era of Longevity and Wealth 1: Stephen J. Kay and Tapen Sinha: Overview: Lessons from Pension Reform in the Americas Part I: System Design and Policy Implications 2: Alberto Arenas de Mesa, David Bravo, Jere R. Behrman, Olivia S. Mitchell, and Petra E. Todd: The Chilean Pension Reform Turns 25: Lessons from the Social Protection Survey 3: John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, and Brigitte C. Madrian: The Importance of Default Options for Retirement Saving Outcomes: Evidence from the United States 4: Estelle James, Alejandra Cox Edwards, and Rebeca Wong: The Gender Impact of Social Security Reform in Latin America 5: Michelle Dion: Understanding the Gendered Dimensions of Pension Reform 6: Robert Holzmann, Estelle James, and Truman Packard: Reflections on Pension Reform in the Americas: From "Averting the Old-Age Crisis" to "Keeping the Promise of Old-Age Security" and Beyond 7: Kurt Weyland: Bounded Rationality in Latin American Pension Reform Part II: Country Studies 8: John F. Cogan and Olivia S. Mitchell: Perspectives from the President's Commission on Social Security Reform 9: Robert Brown: Reforms to Canadian Social Security, 1996/97 10: Tapen Sinha and Maria De Los Angeles Yañez: A Decade of Government Mandated Privately Run Pensions in Mexico: What Have We Learned? 11: Milko Matijascic and Stephen J. Kay: Pensions in Brazil: Reaching the Limits of Parametric Reform in Latin America 12: Juliana Martínez Franzoni: Costa Rica's Pension Reform: A Decade of Negotiated Incremental Change 13: Eduardo Morón and Eliana Carranza: The Peruvian Pension Reform: Ailing or Failing? 14: Rodolfo Saldain: Uruguay: A Mixed Reform 15: Rafael Rofman: The Pension System in Argentina 16: Olivia Mitchell: Epilogue: The Future of Retirement Systems in the Americas

About the Author :
Stephen Kay is the coordinator of Latin America analysis in the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Research Department and coordinator of the Bank's Americas Center. His articles on pension reform in Latin America have appeared in Comparative Politics, Economic Review, Foreign Policy, the Journal of Aging and Social Policy, the Journal of European Social Policy, the Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs, and the International Social Security Review. He has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. Tapen Sinha is the ING Chair Professor at ITAM, Mexico, the founder and director of International Center for Pension Research, Special Professor, University of Nottingham, UK, Research Associate, Centre for Risk and Insurance, University of Nottingham, UK, Senior Advisor, Cranes Software Inc. Dr. Sinha has published over 110 papers and has authored or edited eight books. He has presented papers in more than 200 conferences in all continents of the globe. He has a BStat in Statistics and MStat in Econometrics from the Indian Statistical Institute. He has a doctorate in Financial Economics from the University of Minnesota.