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A comparative study of European countries' efforts to reform pension systems in the context of ageing populations.
Throughout the developed world, public and private pension schemes face major challenges that are creating irresistible pressures for reform. Major structural changes in Latin America and in Central and Eastern Europe have led to particularly fierce pressure. Two member states of the European Union - Italy and Sweden - have introduced radical reform of their public pensions systems; controversial pension reforms have been proposed in France and Germany; and the British government has been widely criticized over its pension reforms and its 2002 white paper. This exceptional volume examines the challenges faced by pension schemes in the advanced economies and the reforms that have been introduced to tackle these challenges. A team of international contributors provides an up-to-date, invaluable analysis of different aspects of pension problems, prospects and reforms. The book incorporates cross-national chapters as well as a focus on individual countries including Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Sweden, the UK and the USA.
Introduction : the political economy of pension reform / by Camila Arza and Martin Kohli -- The "new politics" of pension reforms in Continental Europe / by David Natali and Martin Rhodes -- Between conflict and consensus : The reform of Bismarckian pension regimes / by Martin Schludi -- How do politicians get away with path-breaking pension reforms? : the political psychology of pension reform in democracies / by Einar Overbye -- The politics and outcomes of three-pillar pension reforms in Central and Eastern Europe / by Katharina Muller -- Changing European welfare : A new distribution pattern of pension policy? / by Camila Arza -- The interdependence of the system of solidarity and the system of equivalence / by Martin Rein and Karen Anderson -- The Anglo-American pension regime : failures of the divided welfare state / by Robin Blackburn -- The gender pension gap : effects of norms and reform policies / by Patricia Frericks and Robert Maier -- Generational equity : concepts and attitudes / by Martin Kohli.
This volume contains the findings of the research project "Institutional Change in Social Security: Pension Reforms in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic," which was completed in early 1999. Muller, a research fellow with the Frankfurt Institute for Transformation Studies at the European University Viadrina, examines the partial privatization path that Poland and Hungary chose, and compares their Latin American-styled methods to those of the Czech Republic (which fall well within the boundaries of the Bismarckian-Beveridgean pension traditions). In particular, she looks at which structural-institutional and actor-related factors account for radial pension reform. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Social Security in the United States and in Europe is at a critical juncture. Through the essays assembled in Social Security Pension Reform in Europe, Martin Feldstein and Horst Siebert, along with a number of distinguished contributors, discuss the challenges facing Social Security reform in the aging societies of Europe. A remarkable range of European nations—Germany, France, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Hungary—have implemented or are about to implement mixed Social Security systems that combine a traditional defined benefit of the pay-as-you-go system with an individual retirement account defined contribution of a capital-funded system. The essays here highlight the problems that the European pension reform process faces and how it differs from that of the United States. This timely volume will significantly enrich the debate on pension reform worldwide.
The German pension system was the first formal pension system in the world, designed by Bismarck nearly 120 years ago. It has been very successful in providing high and reliable pension levels at reasonable contribution rates. While the generosity of the German pension system is considered a great social achievement, negative incentive effects of past reforms in the 1970s and 1980s and population aging are threatening the very core of the system. This has led to fundamental pension reforms since 1992. Based on a detailed simulation model of the German pension system, this book provides a thorough assessment of the system and its reforms. It shows that the latest reforms have put the system back onto a stable path and moved it from the old monolithic towards a multi-pillar system.
This is an admirable example of a multi-authored comparative book. The two editors set the scene very carefully in the opening chapter and the subsequent chapters follow the framework set out and use the concepts explored there. In this never simple policy area, national systems are explained as clearly as possible by each author. Michael Hill, Journal of Social Policy This is an enlightening introduction to the global dimensions and complexity of pension reform. Recommended. J.F. O Connell, Choice Population ageing and the resulting pressures on existing pension systems constitutes one of the most important challenges modern societies will have to face over the coming decades. Although gove...
This book is an abridgement of Barr and Diamond's Reforming Pensions: Principles and Policy Choices (OUP, 2008). It begins with the introduction to the earlier book, includes the concluding chapters to the sections on principles and on policy choices and the concluding policy chapter to the book. It summarizes the Chile and China chapters into a section of five pages. It presents material from some of the boxes of the longer book. While the longer book remains as a definitive and detailed analysis of pension reform, this new, shorter book conveys the message and conclusions to policy makers, journalists writing for the general public, and students being introduced to social security and othe...
Reviews developments in pensions in Chile, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and USA in the period 1960-1996, with projections to the year 2050. Compares the multi-pillar pension systems and respective contribution and replacement rates, population ageing, and reform options.
This study examines the little-known involvement of employer's and workers' organizations, academics, professionals, and experts in developing and reforming public policy; and pension reform, in particular.