Reforming Pensions: Principles and Policy Choices

摘要

This book consists of two distinct parts. The first part of the book sets out the basic analytical principles behind pension policy. The second part applies these principles to actual pension reforms around the world with specific attention to Chile and China. One of the main messages of the book is that there is no unambiguously best design of a pension system. Each country should develop its own pension system based on the weights it attaches to the primary objectives of pension systems, which the book identifies as inter-temporal consumption smoothing, insurance, poverty relief and redistribution. Also relevant are a country's specific circumstances, such as saving and employment patterns as well as family structures. Barr and Diamond argue that a country faces a wider range of choices about its pension structures when its administrative, institutional and fiscal capacities expand. In particular, individual funded accounts should be introduced only if a country can properly regulate financial and insurance markets.