It is generally accepted that Social Security must be reformed, but there is little agreement on what should be done to reform the program. US Pension Reform: Lessons from Other Countries looks at the social pension reforms of twelve other countries, assesses the current US Social Security program, and evaluates how these twelve models inform opportunities for adaptation of the current system. The authors consider governments' current fiscal balances in order to contextualize countries' initial financial liabilities and pension program infrastructure.
The book concludes with an integrated reform proposal for Social Security. These prescriptions suggest concrete plans to address issues such as underfunding, benefits for high-income participants and the elderly demographic segment, as well as the creation of an individual account program. This volume forges significant advances and boldly confronts the challenge of reconstructing the US Social Security program.
- Cover
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Lessons from the World
- Structure of the Book
- Key Findings
- Policy Implications
- References
- Chapter 2 Fiscal and Demographic Challenges
- Assessing Countries’ “Fiscal Starting Point”
- True Cost of Public Pensions Today
- Value of the “Pension Promise”
- The Demographic Outlook
- Understanding the Impact of Looking at Effective Retirement Ages
- Synthesis of Fiscal and Demographic Challenges
- References
- Appendix 2A: Pension Data in Detail
- Appendix 2B: Methodological Assumptions for OECD Pension Modeling
- Appendix 2C: Why the Decline in the Number of Children is Unlikely to Help Offset the Public Expenditure Levels in Most OECD Countries
- Chapter 3 The Distributional Challenge
- The Two Philosophies of Pension Provision: Universality versus Insurance
- How Well Do Different Pension Systems Alleviate Old Age Poverty?
- Intergenerational Transfers
- Average National Retirement Ages and Differing Life Expectancies—A Distributional Issue in National Pension Systems?
- A Closer Look at the Distributional Effects of Public Pensions
- State and Local Government Accounting and Retirement Finances
- Concluding Remarks
- References
- Appendix 3A: Data and Definitions
- Appendix 3B
- Chapter 4 The Employment Incentive Challenge for Aging Populations
- Economic Dependency Ratios Going Forward—Some Countries Will Have to Act
- A Closer Look at Employment Rates for Older Workers
- Most OECD Older Workers Will Be Better Educated in the Future
- Why Do People Withdraw Early from the Workforce?
- The Retirement Decision
- Phased Retirement Option
- Concluding Remarks
- References
- Appendix 4A Exorcising the "Lump-of-Labor" Ghost One More (Last?) Time
- Chapter 5 Individual Accounts
- The Context in Support of Individual Accounts
- Disadvantages of Individual Accounts
- Structures and Brief Histories of Selected Countries’ Individual Accounts
- Participation/Contribution Density
- Administrative Costs and Fees
- Elderly Poverty and Replacement Rates
- Financing the Transition and Effects on National Saving
- Overall Conclusions
- References
- Chapter 6 Notional or Nonfinancial Individual Accounts
- Notional Accounts in Sweden
- Notional Accounts in Other Countries
- US Proposals to Establish Private Accounts
- Conclusions
- References
- Chapter 7 Challenges to Corporate Pension Provision
- “Good Old Days” Revisited—How Extensive Was the US Corporate Welfare State?
- Recent and Current Corporate Pension Provision
- Why the Switch from Defined Benefit Pension Plans?
- Choice of Corporate Defined Benefit or Defined Contribution/Hybrid Pension Provision in the OECD
- Recent Trends in Corporate Pension Provision in Other OECD Countries
- Summary of the Challenges
- References
- Appendix 7A An Accounting Standards Arbitrage: How the French Government Took Over the Pension Liabilities of Electricite de France and Made Billions
- Chapter 8 Conclusion
- Targeted Benefit Adjustments to Deal with the Fiscal Shortfall
- Adjusting the Retirement Age
- Increasing Revenues for the Social Security System
- Add-On Program of Individual Accounts
- Timing the Reform of Social Security and Automatic Balancing Mechanisms
- References
- Abbreviations
- Index
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