Pension Reform : Issues and Prospects for Non-Financial Defined Contribution Schemes
The previous decade has been one of pension reform throughout the world. In high income countries, the driving force has been the threat that current systems will become unaffordable in coming decades, with demographic developments presenting a maj...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Publication |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/01/6625523/pension-reform-issues-prospects-non-financial-defined-contribution-ndc-schemes http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6983 |
| Summary: | The previous decade has been one of
pension reform throughout the world. In high income
countries, the driving force has been the threat that
current systems will become unaffordable in coming decades,
with demographic developments presenting a major risk. In
another setting, countries in the process of transition from
a command, to a market economy are confronted with the
challenge of introducing a public pension system that will
provide social security in old age, but that also supports
the fundamentals of a market economy. In the latter sense,
it is important to examine carefully the experiences of
developed market economies. Even in these countries, the
driving force behind reform is demographic change and
affordability. In a third setting, middle and lower-middle
income countries are faced with the question of what system
will best serve the interests of their specific country
goals for the future. In all of these settings
"NDC"-non-financial defined contribution-pension
schemes have been on the agenda in discussions of possible
options. Sweden is one of the few countries to have
implemented an NDC scheme in the 1990s, when NDC came into
its own as a concept, implemented in four European Union
(EU) countries (Italy, Latvia, and Poland are the other
three). NDC has become a reform option considered by many
countries, understandably since most of Europe has a
pay-as-you-go tradition, and NDC constitutes a new way to
"organize" a mandatory, universal pay-as-you-go
pension system. With some experience of NDC schemes
implemented, it is felt particularly relevant for Sweden to
host a conference devoted to discussing both the conceptual
and institutional aspects of NDC. The goal was even more
ambitious, however: to contribute to creating a synthesis of
current knowledge on this new topic. This book is the
realization of that goal. It comprises discussion papers on
the status of NDC, its concept and the reform strategies
that follow. Papers also discuss the conceptual issues of
design and implementation , lessons from countries with NDC
contribution schemes, and finalizes on the potential of NDC
contribution schemes in other countries' reforms. |
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