Pension Policies in OECD Countries: Background, Trends and Implications

Concerns about reforming public pensions schemes are an OECD-wide phenomenon. This paper highlights in a first part the background and various causes of the reform debate, summarized in five broad areas: budgetary, economic, social, population aging, and system maturation. The second part presents major directions of current reform approaches of public pension schemes. Despite the different structure and history of these schemes, the major trends in reform are strikingly similar. The final part discusses some major policy considerations resulting from the current reform approach in the face of an aging population. At present, the pace of the reform process in most countries must be considered insufficient to put the pension systems on a financially sound basis and thus to avoid future individual welfare losses and intergenerational income distribution.