Many countries face increasing fiscal problems financing pensions in the face of population aging. There is controversy about the underlying economic theory, about the extent of the problem, and about the best mix of policies to protect old-age security. This paper establishes the areas of debate: gives thumbnail descriptions of pension arrangements in different countries; discusses the main analytical and empirical issues relevant to thinking about pension design; and assess a range of policy directions. The main conclusions are that what matters most is effective government and economic growth; that the debate between pay-as-you-go and funding is secondary; that good pension schemes can take many forms; and that there is a problem in financing pensions, but not a crisis.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Financial Markets Group in its series FMG Discussion Papers with number
dp562.