Pension Systems and Reforms: Country Experiences and Research Issues

Abstract

Pension reform is spreading around the globe, ranging from Latin America to OECD countries, with current discussions of major reform projects in many other developing, transition, and OECD economies. This paper surveys current research issues and country experiences related to old-age security arrangements by introducing the papers selected for this special issue of RAE and the July 1994 Conference on Pension Systems and Reforms sponsored by Fundação Getúlio Vargas. It also poses 15 research and policy design issues not addressed by the literature, ranging from macroeconomic effects to political-economy conditions of pension reform, to old-age poverty and the role of government, and design features of fully-funded pension systems.