Privatizing Social Security
Privatizing Social Security

Author: Martin Feldstein

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 0226241823

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This volume represents the most important work to date on one of the pressing policy issues of the moment: the privatization of social security. Although social security is facing enormous fiscal pressure in the face of an aging population, there has been relatively little published on the fundamentals of essential reform through privatization. Privatizing Social Security fills this void by studying the methods and problems involved in shifting from the current system to one based on mandatory saving in individual accounts. "Timely and important. . . . [Privatizing Social Security] presents a forceful case for a radical shift from the existing unfunded, pay-as-you-go single national program to a mandatory funded program with individual savings accounts. . . . An extensive analysis of how a privatized plan would work in the United States is supplemented with the experiences of five other countries that have privatized plans." —Library Journal "[A] high-powered collection of essays by top experts in the field."—Timothy Taylor, Public Interest

Privatizing Pensions
Privatizing Pensions

Author: Mitchell A. Orenstein

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2008-08-11

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1400837669

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To what extent do international organizations, global policy networks, and transnational policy entrepreneurs influence domestic policy makers? Have we entered a new phase of globalization that, unbeknownst to most citizens, shapes policies that used to be the sole domain of domestic politics? Privatizing Pensions reveals how international institutions--such as the World Bank, USAID, and other transnational policy actors--have played a seminal role in the development, diffusion, and implementation of new pension reforms that are transforming the postwar social contract in more than thirty countries worldwide, including the United States. Mitchell Orenstein shows how transnational actors have driven change in a policy area once thought to be beyond reform in many countries, and how they have done so by deploying their unique resources and legitimacy to promote new ideas, recruit disciples worldwide, and provide a broad range of technical assistance to government reformers over the long term. He demonstrates that while domestic decision makers may retain veto power over these reforms--which replace traditional social security with individual pension savings accounts--transnational policy makers play the role of "proposal actors," shaping the information, preferences, and resources of their domestic clients. Privatizing Pensions argues that even the most quintessentially domestic areas of policy have been thoroughly globalized, and that these international influences must be better understood.

Public Finance and Public Policy
Public Finance and Public Policy

Author: Jonathan Gruber

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 806

ISBN-13: 9780716786559

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Chapters include: "Income distribution and welfare programs", "State and local government expenditures" and "Health economics and private health insurance".

Pensions, Social Security, and the Privatization of Risk
Pensions, Social Security, and the Privatization of Risk

Author: Mitchell Alexander Orenstein

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 139

ISBN-13: 0231146949

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Mitchell Orenstein brings together leading economists and policy advisors to discuss the complex and timely issue of retirement and risk. Employers, increasingly called upon by elected officials, have begun to shift from a model of collective risk-sharing towards a model of individualized investment risk. This represents a marked difference from the notion of an American social safety net, which emerged during the Great Depression. Weighing what is gained and what is lost as new schemas surface, this book offers readers reasoned analysis of the looming crisis and our collective alternatives both domestically and abroad.

Prospects for Social Security Reform
Prospects for Social Security Reform

Author: Olivia S. Mitchell

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 1999-01-29

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 9780812234794

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The United States social security system is the nation's largest social insurance program. As such, it has a far-reaching impact throughout the economy, influencing not only old-age economic security but also many behaviors, including corporate employment policy, retirement patterns, and personal saving. In the past, the system's universal coverage and generous benefits ensured popular support to a degree enjoyed by no other form of "big government" social spending. Yet over two-thirds of all Americans today believe that the social security system will face bankruptcy by the time they retire. The question of social security reform—how to reform the system or whether the system needs reform at all—is the subject of heated debate at all levels of government, in the media, and among workers, pensioners, and employers. Prospects for Social Security Reform informs the debate by exploring why the system is at a crossroads today and what to do about it. Contributors detail the size and nature of the problem, explain views of key "stakeholders" regarding reform options, and report new evidence on how reform might affect the economy. Research findings and public opinion polls are analyzed, as are lessons from other countries experimenting with new ways to deliver old-age benefit promises. No other volume includes as diverse and expert a set of perspectives on reform and privatization as those gathered here from economists, actuaries, employers, investment managers, and representatives of organized labor. Among its chapters is the path-breaking study "Social Security Money's Worth," the 1999 winner of the TIAA-CREF's Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security.

Social Security Pensions
Social Security Pensions

Author: C. Gillion

Publisher: International Labor Office

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 808

ISBN-13:

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By providing a balanced assessment and factual review of the praticalities and structure behind various pension schemes around the world, this book assists decision-makers in forming effective, viable pension policy.

A History of Public Sector Pensions in the United States
A History of Public Sector Pensions in the United States

Author: Robert Louis Clark

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2003-05-12

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9780812237146

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From the Wharton School, offering a comprehensive assessment of the political and financial dimensions of public-sector pensions from the colonial period until the emergence of modern retirement plans in the twentieth century.

Assessing Chile's Pension System: Challenges and Reform Options
Assessing Chile's Pension System: Challenges and Reform Options

Author: Samuel Pienknagura

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2021-09-10

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 151359611X

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Chile’s pension system came under close scrutiny in recent years. This paper takes stock of the adequacy of the system and highlights its challenges. Chile’s defined contribution system was quite influential when introduced, and was taken as an example by other countries. However, it is now delivering low replacement rates relative to OECD peers, as its parameters did not adapt over time to changing demographics and global returns, while informality persists in the labor market. In the absence of reforms, the system’s inability to deliver adequate outcomes for a large share of participants will continue to magnify, as demographic trends and low global interest rates will continue to reduce replacement rates. In addition, recent legislation allowing for pension savings withdrawals to counter the effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, is projected to further reduce replacement rates and increase fiscal costs. A substantial improvement in replacement rates is feasible, via a reform that raises contribution rates and the retirement age, coupled with policies that increases workers’ contribution density.

Social Protection and the Market in Latin America
Social Protection and the Market in Latin America

Author: Sarah M. Brooks

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2008-11-03

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 1139474405

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Social security institutions have been among the most stable post-war social programs around the world. Increasingly, however, these institutions have undergone profound transformation from public risk-pooling systems to individual market-based designs. Why has this 'privatization' occurred? Why do some governments enact more radical pension privatizations than others? This book provides a theoretical and empirical account of when and to what degree governments privatize national old-age pension systems. Quantitative cross-national analysis simulates the degree of pension privatization around the world and tests competing hypotheses to explain reform outcomes. In addition, comparative analysis of pension reforms in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay evaluate a causal theory of institutional change. The central argument is that pension privatization emerges from political conflict, rather than from exogenous pressures. The argument is developed around three dimensions: the double bind of globalization, contingent path-dependent processes, and the legislative politics of loss imposition.

Keeping the Promise of Social Security in Latin America
Keeping the Promise of Social Security in Latin America

Author: Indermit S. Gill

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2004-10-25

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0821383752

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Empirical analysis of two decades of pioneering pension and social security reform in Latin America and the Caribbean shows that much has been achieved, but that critical challenges remain. In tackling this unfinished agenda, a great deal can be learned from the reform experience of countries in the region. 'Keeping the Promise,' produced by the chief economist's office for the Latin America and Caribbean region at the World Bank, evaluates policy reforms in 12 countries, points to successes and shortcomings, and proposes priorities and options for future reform.