---

Annuities: Regulating Withdrawals from Individual Pension Accounts

Autor: Banco Mundial
Año: 2005
Resumen: Pension, to most people, implies a regular payment from a specific age-such as retirement-until death. Individual retirement accounts are a vehicle for retirement savings but they do not become a pension in the conventional sense of the word until they are converted to an 'annuity'. How much and what type of annuitization should be mandated are key policy questions facing reformers. Economists believe that annuities can make people better off. The intuition is straightforward. Life expectancy is normally uncertain. So people would have to spend accumulated wealth slowly after retirement to ensure an adequate income should they live a long time. This kind of self-insurance is costly because it increases the chances that people will consume less than they could have if they knew when they were going to die. This cost can be reduced with annuities, which pool risk across individuals.

Fuente: Banco Mundial
Clasificación: Fondos de Inversión
Tipo de Publicación: Informes
Idioma:

Para visualizar el documento, clic aquí »

---

Pension Reform Primer: Issues, Challenges, Options and Arguments in Pension Reform

Autor: Banco Mundial
Año: 2005
Resumen: The World Bank Pension Reform Primer aims to provide a comprehensive toolkit for policy makers on designing and implementing pension reform. It is based on continuously updated information from countries that have introduced reforms emphasizing the role of privately-managed individual retirement accounts. Their experience offers a number of useful lessons for policy makers elsewhere. The Bank set out a conceptual framework for fundamental pension reform in "Averting the Old Age Crisis: Policies to Protect the Old and Promote Growth". This study, published in 1994, helped shape the global debate about the impact of population ageing on pension systems. The Pension Reform Primer builds on this pioneering work and on the experience of the Bank, and other international institutions. It focuses on practical questions.

Fuente: Banco Mundial
Clasificación: Reformas de Pensiones
Tipo de Publicación: Informes
Idioma:

Para visualizar el documento, clic aquí »

---

Pensions in the Middle East and North Africa: Time for Change

Autor: Robalino, David
Año: 2005
Resumen: This is the first comprehensive assessment of pension systems in the Middle East and North Africa. While other regions-Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, in particular-have been actively introducing reforms to their pension systems, Middle East and North African countries have lagged behind. This is explained, in part, by the common belief that, because demographics remain favorable-the countries are young and the labor force is expanding rapidly-financial problems are far in the future; as a result, pension reform does not have to be a priority in the broader policy agenda. However, the authors show that aging is not the only factor behind a financial crisis; the problem is the generosity of the current schemes. Moreover, badly designed benefit formulas and eligibility conditions introduce unnecessary economic distortions and make the systems vulnerable to adverse distributional transfers. The book does not present a general model that could solve the problems of all pension systems in MENA countries. Instead the authors focus on outlining a framework for guiding discussions on pension reform and making objective policy choices.

Fuente: Banco Mundial
Clasificación: Seguridad Social y Sistemas de Pensiones
Tipo de Publicación: Libros
Idioma:

Para visualizar el documento, clic aquí »

---

Coverage: The Scope of Protection in Retirement Income Systems

Autor: Banco Mundial
Año: 2005
Resumen: The coverage of old-age protection systems is a central concern in developing countries. While most countries mandate that workers make contributions to a retirement-savings plan, fewer than ten per cent comply in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, as compared to higher-income OECD countries which cover 80 per cent or more of their workforce. Economic development is the major determinant of coverage protection for retirement systems, with the level of income per capita as an excellent predictor of coverage rates. The note concludes that : a) coverage rates track income levels closely and evasion is driven by the high cost of joining the formal sector; b) pension scheme design can exacerbate the evasion problem; c) a poorly designed and managed scheme should be reformed prior to attempts to expand its coverage; d) extending financial solvency of a pay-as-you-go scheme is not a good rationale for expanding coverage; e) a safety net can help cover the inevitable gaps in a contributory scheme; f) defined contribution schemes tend to provide better incentives for coverage; g) creative approaches to expanding coverage include direct matching contributions for low income workers and finding ways to reduce transaction costs by harnessing existing groups.

Fuente: Banco Mundial
Clasificación: Seguridad Social y Sistemas de Pensiones
Tipo de Publicación: Informes
Idioma:

Para visualizar el documento, clic aquí »

---

Guarantees - Counting the Cost of Guaranteeing Defined Contribution Pensions

Autor: Banco Mundial
Año: 2005
Resumen: Different types of pension involve different kinds of uncertainty. For example, public sector pension schemes involve a 'policy risk', that the scheme might be reformed in the future so that benefits turn out differently than expected. Private pension schemes are less subject to this policy risk, because governments are unlikely to confiscate private property. But defined-contribution pensions do involve capital-market risk during the accumulation phase, when contributions and investment returns build up in the fund. The risk is that the pension fund's performance is insufficient to give an individual member an adequate retirement income. This note reviews the different types of guarantees, suggesting guarantees of the returns from funded pensions can gain support for reform; but poorly designed guarantees can undermine it, and create large liabilities. The cost of guarantees should be made as transparent as possible, while option-pricing models can be used to illustrate the cost of guarantees, to inform the decision to offer guarantees, the type of guarantee, and how large it should be. Transparent financing of guarantees is best served by forcing funds to put aside their own assets; this also provides better incentives for fund managers.

Fuente: Banco Mundial
Clasificación: Ahorro Previsional
Tipo de Publicación: Informes
Idioma:

Para visualizar el documento, clic aquí »

---