IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rsocec/v71y2013i3p306-338.html

Public or Private Orientation of Pension Systems in the Light of the Recent Financial Crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Christine Lagoutte
  • Anne Reimat

Abstract

This paper studies the appropriateness of a public or private orientation of pension systems in the light of the recent financial crisis, which has underscored the difficulties and contradictions associated with each system. The different institutional arrangements, in which public or private pension systems are embedded, are key components when assessing their responses to the crisis. Particularly, private pension systems are intertwined with financial markets, while social insurance-based pension systems are linked to the labour market mechanisms. This paper compares the British and French pension systems, as "archetypes" of private-oriented and public-oriented systems, respectively, the first relying on the market and private pension schemes, and the second on mandatory social insurance. This paper shows that the crisis has upheld the founding principles of the public (French) and private (British) pension systems to maintain the existing institutional configurations. At the same time, both systems have strengthened the role played by means-tested benefits and minimum pensions for low-income groups to offset the weaknesses of one or the other system, as emphasised by the crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine Lagoutte & Anne Reimat, 2013. "Public or Private Orientation of Pension Systems in the Light of the Recent Financial Crisis," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 71(3), pages 306-338, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:71:y:2013:i:3:p:306-338
    DOI: 10.1080/00346764.2012.761755
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00346764.2012.761755
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00346764.2012.761755?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henry J. Aaron & John B. Shoven, 1999. "Should the United States Privatize Social Security?," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262011743 edited by Benjamin M. Friedman, December.
    2. Ian Tower & Gregorio Impavido, 2009. "How the Financial Crisis Affects Pensions and Insurance and Why the Impacts Matter," IMF Working Papers 2009/151, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Robert Holzmann, 1997. "Fiscal Alternatives of Moving from Unfunded to Funded Pensions," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 126, OECD Publishing.
    4. repec:ecr:col035:5250 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alvaro Forteza, 1998. "Los efectos de la Reforma uruguaya de la Seguridad Social en el ahorro," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 1098, Department of Economics - dECON.
    2. Palacios, Robert & Rocha, Roberto, 1998. "The Hungarian pension system in transition," The Social Policy and Labor Discussion Paper Series 20048, The World Bank.
    3. Berdin, Elia, 2016. "Interest rate risk, longevity risk and the solvency of life insurers," ICIR Working Paper Series 23/16, Goethe University Frankfurt, International Center for Insurance Regulation (ICIR).
    4. Pestieau, Pierre & Possen, Uri M., 2000. "Investing Social Security in the Equity Market. Does it Make a Difference?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 1), pages 41-58, March.
    5. Patty Duijm & Sophie Steins Bisschop, 2018. "Short-termism of long-term investors? The investment behaviour of Dutch insurance companies and pension funds," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(31), pages 3376-3387, July.
    6. Grech, Aaron George, 2015. "Pension reforms in the 1990s and during the financial crisis: More of the same?," MPRA Paper 66894, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Aaron George Grech, 2015. "The Financial Crisis and Differences in State Pension Generosity across EU Countries," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 13(02), pages 36-41, August.
    8. Fabrizio Balassone & Daniele Franco, 2000. "Public investment, the Stability Pact and the ‘golden rule’," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 207-229, June.
    9. Gora, Marek & Rutkowski, Michal, 1998. "The quest for pension reform : Poland's security through diversity," The Social Policy and Labor Discussion Paper Series 20111, The World Bank.
    10. Anna Z¹bkowicz, 2016. "A Paradox Of Reforming Pensions In Poland," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 11(3), pages 585-602, September.
    11. James,Estelle, 1997. "Pension reform : is there a tradeoff between efficiency and equity?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1767, The World Bank.
    12. repec:ces:ifodic:v:13:y:2015:i:2:p:19166297 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Gudjonsson Jon & Hougaard Jensen Svend E., 2023. "Pension Funds and Financial Stability: The Case of the UK Gilt Crisis," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Sciendo, vol. 58(3), pages 155-159, June.
    14. Fernando Perera-Tallo, 2012. "Optimal Retirement Age and Aging Population," 2012 Meeting Papers 728, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    15. Uthoff, Andras, 2006. "Gaps in the welfare State and reforms to pension systems in Latin America," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    16. Fabio Cortes & Peter Lindner & Sheheryar Malik & Miguel A. Segoviano, 2018. "A Comprehensive Multi-Sector Tool for Analysis of Systemic Risk and Interconnectedness (SyRIN)," IMF Working Papers 2018/014, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Helmut Cremer & Pierre Pestieau, 1999. "Coping with the pension crisis: is it a demographic, financial or political problem?," CREPP Working Papers 9907, Centre de Recherche en Economie Publique et de la Population (CREPP) (Research Center on Public and Population Economics) HEC-Management School, University of Liège.
    18. Dilshodjon Alidjonovich Rakhmonov, 2016. "Improvement of the Pension System in Uzbekistan: Through the Experience of the European Union Countries," Eurasian Journal of Economics and Finance, Eurasian Publications, vol. 4(1), pages 80-90.
    19. Sirvan Karimi, 2024. "Populism and the quest for political power: the pitfalls to populist electoral success in Canada," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    20. Cortes, Fabio & Lindner, Peter & Malik, Sheheryar & Segoviano, Miguel, 2018. "A comprehensive multi-sector tool for analysis of Systemic Risk and Interconnectedness (SyRIN)," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118928, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    21. Berdin, Elia & Pancaro, Cosimo & Kok Sørensen, Christoffer, 2016. "A stochastic forward-looking model to assess the profitability and solvency of European insurers," ICIR Working Paper Series 21/16, Goethe University Frankfurt, International Center for Insurance Regulation (ICIR).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:71:y:2013:i:3:p:306-338. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRSE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.