Author: Dimitri Vittas
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Fondos de pensiones - Paises en desarrollo
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description

Author: Dimitri Vittas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
December 1995 The full benefits of social security reform will not be realized until social pension systems are restructured and downsized, contribution rates lowered, and the scope for private pension funds (voluntary or mandatory) increased. Reform of the insurance sector is also essential because of the close links between pensions and life, disability, and annuity insurance. For both economic and regulatory reasons, most developing countries have underdeveloped pension funds and insurance sectors, and their social security systems face many financial and organizational problems. Wide-ranging reform would produce considerable economic and social benefits. A restructured social security system would avoid financial insolvency and be better able to meet its objectives of redistribution. The development of pension funds and insurance business would generate long-term financial resources that could stimulate the growth of capital markets and might help provide adequate, affordable long-term benefits to members and policyholders. The main objectives of an ambitious reform program should be to: * Prevent the insolvency of the social security system (a longer run problem for developing countries with young populations) and thus ensure adequate but affordable, sustainable pension benefits. * Remove incentives that encourage the strategic manipulation, and hamper the efficient functioning, of labor markets. * Control the occurrence of perverse, capricious redistribution by removing the many design faults that afflict security systems in most developing countries. * Generate long-term financial savings that can help stimulate the modernization and growth of capital markets, finance long-term investments, and facilitate privatization. Although there is no single optimal way to sequence and pace a reform program, the full benefits of reform will not be realized until social pension systems are restructured and downsized, contribution rates lowered, and the scope for private pension funds (whether voluntary or mandatory) increased. One often-ignored imperative is to defer indexing the pension system until its many design flaws are corrected. Finally, reform of the insurance sector is essential for the whole program to succeed, because of the close links between pension reform and the provision of life, disability, and annuity insurance services. This paper -- a product of the Financial Sector Development Department -- is part of a larger effort in the department to study pension systems and contractual savings.

Author: United States. Government Accountability Office
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social security
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Author: Peter A. Diamond
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0815797834
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
New in Paperback. While everyone agrees that Social Security is a vital and necessary government program, there have been widely divergent plans for reforming it. Peter A. Diamond and Peter R. Orszag, two of the nation's foremost economists, propose a reform plan that would rescue the program both from its projected financial problems and from those who would destroy the program in order to save it. Since the publication of the first edition of this book in 2004, the Social Security debate has moved to the center of the domestic policy agenda. In this updated edition of Saving Social Security, the authors analyze the Bush Administration's proposal for individual accounts and discuss the so-called "price indexing" proposal to restore long-term solvency through changing how initial benefits would be calculated. Soc ial Security is essis essential reading for policymakers involved in reform, analysts, students, and all those interested in the fate of this safeguard of American lives. "An honest, transparent and comprehensive approach to making the much needed reforms to the Social Security program."—Journal of Pensions, Economics, and Finance "Very accessible presentation of facts, analysis of underlying problems, comparison of opinions, and argument for proposed reforms."—Future Survey Exhaustively researched and deeply entrenched in practical issues and mathematical calculations... a highly recommended ray of hope against a looming national crisis." —Wisconsin Bookwatch "Diamond and Orszag bring some welcome realism and decency to the debate."—Robert M. Solow, Institute Professor Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nobel Laureate in Economics

Author: Olivia S. Mitchell
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812234794
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description
The United States social security system is the nation's largest social insurance program. As such, it has a far-reaching impact throughout the economy, influencing not only old-age economic security but also many behaviors, including corporate employment policy, retirement patterns, and personal saving. In the past, the system's universal coverage and generous benefits ensured popular support to a degree enjoyed by no other form of "big government" social spending. Yet over two-thirds of all Americans today believe that the social security system will face bankruptcy by the time they retire. The question of social security reform—how to reform the system or whether the system needs reform at all—is the subject of heated debate at all levels of government, in the media, and among workers, pensioners, and employers. Prospects for Social Security Reform informs the debate by exploring why the system is at a crossroads today and what to do about it. Contributors detail the size and nature of the problem, explain views of key "stakeholders" regarding reform options, and report new evidence on how reform might affect the economy. Research findings and public opinion polls are analyzed, as are lessons from other countries experimenting with new ways to deliver old-age benefit promises. No other volume includes as diverse and expert a set of perspectives on reform and privatization as those gathered here from economists, actuaries, employers, investment managers, and representatives of organized labor. Among its chapters is the path-breaking study "Social Security Money's Worth," the 1999 winner of the TIAA-CREF's Paul A. Samuelson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security.

Author: Barbara D. Bovbjerg (ed)
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 9781422300510
Category : Social security
Languages : en
Pages : 110

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Book Description
The sooner our nation acts to address Social Security's long-term financial challenges, the easier it will be to successfully meet them. The choices are not difficult to understand, but they are difficult to make. They affect both how much Americans pay for Social Security & how much they receive from the program. They require changes that not only will affect us but have implications for future generations. This guide provides answers to questions about the most basic aspects of Social Security & reform issues in a concise & easy-to-understand format. It provides straightforward answers to how Social Security works, why it needs reform, what the basic options are, & how to assess their implications.

Author: C. Eugene Steuerle
Publisher: The Urban Insitute
ISBN: 9780877666028
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Study of the Social Security debate arguing that Social Security needs reform and offering a blueprint for implementing them to meet today's and tomorrow's needs.

Author: C. Gillion
Publisher: International Labor Office
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 808

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Book Description
By providing a balanced assessment and factual review of the praticalities and structure behind various pension schemes around the world, this book assists decision-makers in forming effective, viable pension policy.

Author: Martin Feldstein
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226241890
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
Social security is the largest and perhaps the most popular program run by the federal government. Given the projected increase in both individual life expectancy and sheer number of retirees, however, the current system faces an eventual overload. Alternative proposals have emerged, ranging from reductions in future benefits to a rise in taxrevenue to various forms of investment-based personal retirement accounts. As this volume suggests, the distributional consequences of these proposals are substantially different and may disproportionately affect those groups who depend on social security to avoid poverty in old age. Together, these studies persuasively show that appropriately designed investment-based social security reforms can effectively reduce the long-term burden of an aging society on future taxpayers, increase the expected future income of retirees, and mitigate poverty rates among the elderly.

Author: Jonathan Gruber
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226310000
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Book Description
The future of Social Security is troubled, both in the United States and in most other developed countries with aging populations. As improvements in health care and changes in life styles enable retirees to live longer than ever before, the stress on national budgets will increase substantially. In Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World, Jonathan Gruber, David A. Wise, and experts in many countries examine the consequences of reforming retirement benefits in a dozen nations. Drawing on the work of an international group of noted economists, the editors argue that social security programs provide strong incentives for workers to leave the labor force by retiring and taking the benefits to which they are entitled. By penalizing work, social security systems magnify the increased financial burden caused by aging populations, thus contributing to the insolvency of the system. This book is a model of comparative analysis that evaluates the effects of illustrative policies for countries facing the impending rapid growth of social security benefits. Its insights will help inform one of the most pressing debates.