IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/intssr/v55y2002i2p3-36.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reforming pensions: Myths, truths, and policy choices

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas Barr

Abstract

This paper discusses the building blocks of pension reform in the light of economic theory, and their application to different types of economy. The opening section sets out the simple economics of pensions. The second section discusses a series of myths which have proved remarkably persistent. Building on this analysis, the latter part of the paper sets out the foundations of effective pensions policy. The third section discusses the prerequisites which any pension reform must respect, i.e. those things which policy advisers can — and should — assert authoritatively. The fourth section turns to the range of choices facing policymakers, drawing on the very different arrangements in different countries. The main conclusions are threefold: (1) The key variable is effective government. (2) From an economic perspective, the difference between pay‐as‐you‐go and funding is second order. (3) The range of potential choice over pension design is wide. One size does not fit all.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Barr, 2002. "Reforming pensions: Myths, truths, and policy choices," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(2), pages 3-36.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:intssr:v:55:y:2002:i:2:p:3-36
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-246X.00122
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-246X.00122
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-246X.00122?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
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martin Werding, 2016. "One Pillar Crumbling, the Others Too Short: Old-Age Provision in Germany," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 237(1), pages 13-21, August.
    2. Werding, Martin & Primorac, Marko, 2018. "Old-age provision in transition: the case of Croatia," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 576-593, October.
    3. Riccardo Magnani, 2018. "What's gone wrong in the design of PAYG systems?," CEPN Working Papers hal-01966571, HAL.
    4. Garon, Jean-Denis, 2016. "The commitment value of funding pensions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 11-14.
    5. Geri, Milva, 2022. "Pension arrangements and economic thinking: unreal assumptions and false predictions in the case of Argentina," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
    6. Mr. Rene Weber & David S. Gerber, 2007. "Aging, Asset Allocation, and Costs: Evidence for the Pension Fund Industry in Switzerland," IMF Working Papers 2007/029, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Gustavo DeSantis, 2014. "More with less: the Almost Ideal Pension Systems (AIPS)," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 12(1), pages 169-192.
    8. Andrew Coleman, 2016. "Pension payments and receipts by New Zealand birth cohorts, 1916--1986," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 51-70, April.
    9. Aleksander Grad & Jakub Karnowski & Andrzej Rzońca, 2022. "Jak powiązać prywatyzację i rozwój filara kapitałowego w systemie emerytalnym – propozycja," Ekonomista, Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne, issue 4, pages 484-508.
    10. Teresa Ghilarducci & Karthik Manickam, 2023. "A Critical Survey of Pension Provision And Pension Reform," SCEPA working paper series. 2023-04, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.

    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:wly:intssr:v:55:y:2002:i:2:p:3-36. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1865-1674 .

    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.