The Inverting Pyramid: Pension Systems Facing Demographic Challenges in Europe and Central Asia (Europe and Central Asia Reports)

Schwarz, Anita M.; Arias, Omar S.; Zviniene, Asta; Rudolph, Heinz P.; Eckardt, Sebastian; Koettl, Johannes; Immervoll, Herwig; Abels, Miglena

ISBN 10: 082139908X / ISBN 13: 9780821399088

Editore: World Bank Publications, 2014

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Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: The Inverting Pyramid: Pension Systems Facing Demographic Challenges in Europe and Central Asia (Europe and Central Asia Reports)
• Editore: World Bank Publications
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 082139908X
• ISBN 13: 9780821399088
• Rilegatura: Brossura
• Condizione: New

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Pension systems in Europe and Central Asia are facing unprecedented challenges. While many of the countries in the region have undertakenreforms when their economies encounter diffi cult times, these reforms are frequently reversed as soon as the situation improves. However, the demographic trends in the region require new, sustained efforts toward changing the pension system to provide adequate yet sustainable benefi ts.The Inverting Pyramid documents the progressive generosity of pension systems in Europe since inception, with current popular expectations based on recent generous promises, which are neither based on historically customary practice nor affordable over time. The increased generosity in the past was driven by the assumption of a demographic pyramid with an ever expanding base of young people, but the last decades have revealed that the pyramid is beginning to invert in some countries, with fewer young people at the bottom and many more elderly people on top, making that generosity no longer affordable.Returning to the generosity of the pension system of the 1970s will go a long way toward providing adequate and sustainable benefi ts in the future. However, a more sustainable system will also require labor market reforms, improvements in savings mechanisms, and in many cases additional public resources. The extent to which a country can undertake reforms in labor markets, savings, and public fi nances can infl uence the extent to which its pension system will need to change, with different solutions possible for different countries. But in all cases, the changes that need to be made have to be widely discussed and publicly accepted to prevent painful reversals.The book hopes to stimulate widespread public discussion of the issue so that countries can make sustainable choices with gradual plementation, before they face such daunting challenges that they have to undertake sudden harsh measures.

Product Description

Europe s pension systems among the most celebrated features of its social welfare model face tremendous challenges. With only 11 percent of the world s population, Europe spends about 60 percent of global outlays on social protection, largely in pensions. In many countries, pension rules have encouraged people to retire sooner, while enjoying longer lives. Payroll taxes on a continuously expanding contributory base have financed these benefits. This model of pension provision is now being severely tested as pension systems reach maturity, while the population is aging and the labor force is starting to shrink. Measures to enable a continued tradition of providing old age security will include raising retirement ages such that pensions are provided in the last 15 years of life, when work capacity traditionally diminishes encouraging immigration to help fill the declining work force rationalizing pension spending, putting priority on preventing old age poverty, and encouraging savings to help provide the more comfortable retirement that individuals have come to expect. Some measures may be more appropriate in particular countries than others, yet undertaking all of them will likely require less drastic changes in any one of them. The specific choices will need to be discussed and agreed among each country s own population, and be accompanied by enabling changes in pension policy, tax policy, financial markets policy, and labor policy. The fundamental issue is that, with these changes, the important achievements of European social policy can withstand the demographic onslaught and continue to provide old age security for generations to come.