Mexico - Technical Note on Industrial Organization and Competition : Pension System in Mexico

Mexico, as many other countries in Latin America, has adopted an individual capitalization pension system. The design of these pension reforms confers the administration of pension funds to private companies. Under these schemes competition plays a...

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Format: Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: Washington, DC : World Bank 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/279711468123256748/Mexico-Technical-note-on-industrial-organization-and-competition-pension-system-in-Mexico
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37387
id okr-10986-37387
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-373872022-05-05T05:10:41Z Mexico - Technical Note on Industrial Organization and Competition : Pension System in Mexico PENSION SYSTEM PENSION REFORM GOVERNMENT ROLE AFORE INDUSTRY COMISSION STRUCTURE BARRIERS TO ENTRY REGULATION CHANGES PRICE COMPETITION POLICY IMPLICATIONS PROSPECTS POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS Mexico, as many other countries in Latin America, has adopted an individual capitalization pension system. The design of these pension reforms confers the administration of pension funds to private companies. Under these schemes competition plays a key role, keeping prices low, a good quality of service, and an efficient investment allocation. However, the extent of competition in the reformed systems has been a common concern for most of the countries where it has been implemented. Moreover, when competition has been intense, like in Chile between 1994 and 1997, marketing expenses were extremely high. This outcome may not be desirable if it does not benefit future pensioners and is an unnecessary increase in costs of providing the service. The performance of competition in this industry is largely related to the demand characteristics, which is by design highly insensitive to prices, rates of return or quality of service, given that this is a compulsory product with government guarantees. Regulations in this market also significantly affect the way in which competition operates. Aiming to a better degree of competition, the private pension system's regulator in Mexico has introduced innovate rules. These regulations have focus in inducing higher demand elasticity to prices and lowering barriers to entry. This has entailed lower prices, lower profits, and the entrance of new firms. The paper is structured as follows: section A gives pension reform in Mexico; section B gives the role of the government; section C deals with the afore industry; section D is commission structure; section E gives potential barriers to entry; section F focuses on changes in regulation that promote price competition; section G gives comments on policy implications and prospects; and section H gives conclusions and policy recommendations. 2022-05-04T16:03:44Z 2022-05-04T16:03:44Z 2006-11 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/279711468123256748/Mexico-Technical-note-on-industrial-organization-and-competition-pension-system-in-Mexico http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37387 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC : World Bank Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) Latin America & Caribbean Mexico
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic PENSION SYSTEM
PENSION REFORM
GOVERNMENT ROLE
AFORE INDUSTRY
COMISSION STRUCTURE
BARRIERS TO ENTRY
REGULATION CHANGES
PRICE COMPETITION
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
PROSPECTS
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
spellingShingle PENSION SYSTEM
PENSION REFORM
GOVERNMENT ROLE
AFORE INDUSTRY
COMISSION STRUCTURE
BARRIERS TO ENTRY
REGULATION CHANGES
PRICE COMPETITION
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
PROSPECTS
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Mexico - Technical Note on Industrial Organization and Competition : Pension System in Mexico
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Mexico
description Mexico, as many other countries in Latin America, has adopted an individual capitalization pension system. The design of these pension reforms confers the administration of pension funds to private companies. Under these schemes competition plays a key role, keeping prices low, a good quality of service, and an efficient investment allocation. However, the extent of competition in the reformed systems has been a common concern for most of the countries where it has been implemented. Moreover, when competition has been intense, like in Chile between 1994 and 1997, marketing expenses were extremely high. This outcome may not be desirable if it does not benefit future pensioners and is an unnecessary increase in costs of providing the service. The performance of competition in this industry is largely related to the demand characteristics, which is by design highly insensitive to prices, rates of return or quality of service, given that this is a compulsory product with government guarantees. Regulations in this market also significantly affect the way in which competition operates. Aiming to a better degree of competition, the private pension system's regulator in Mexico has introduced innovate rules. These regulations have focus in inducing higher demand elasticity to prices and lowering barriers to entry. This has entailed lower prices, lower profits, and the entrance of new firms. The paper is structured as follows: section A gives pension reform in Mexico; section B gives the role of the government; section C deals with the afore industry; section D is commission structure; section E gives potential barriers to entry; section F focuses on changes in regulation that promote price competition; section G gives comments on policy implications and prospects; and section H gives conclusions and policy recommendations.
format Working Paper
title Mexico - Technical Note on Industrial Organization and Competition : Pension System in Mexico
title_short Mexico - Technical Note on Industrial Organization and Competition : Pension System in Mexico
title_full Mexico - Technical Note on Industrial Organization and Competition : Pension System in Mexico
title_fullStr Mexico - Technical Note on Industrial Organization and Competition : Pension System in Mexico
title_full_unstemmed Mexico - Technical Note on Industrial Organization and Competition : Pension System in Mexico
title_sort mexico - technical note on industrial organization and competition : pension system in mexico
publisher Washington, DC : World Bank
publishDate 2022
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/279711468123256748/Mexico-Technical-note-on-industrial-organization-and-competition-pension-system-in-Mexico
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37387
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