Pensions: Policies, new reforms and current challenges

The ongoing global financial crisis, coupled with the continued dramatic increases in life expectancy, have escalated the concerns countries have regarding the sustainability of their pension systems and how these retirement schemes will be financed. From 1998 to 2008, close to 30 countries embarked on privatizing reforms to their pension programs. Some of these countries introduced new pension reforms directed at private individual accounts while reducing the size of the state social security system. The focus of other reforms during this period varied but was primarily aimed at strengthening basic protection for economically at-risk older individuals, increasing benefit coverage and/or improving the overall fiscal sustainability of these systems. However, the move towards greater coverage and sustainability was interrupted by the worldwide financial meltdown. This has led to a reassessment of pension systems and reform approaches. This volume was assembled to review the status of pension reforms globally and to gain a glimpse of the trends emerging as countries adjust to the new age of macroeconomic worldwide uncertainty. The chapters in this volume provide concise, clear and dispassionate discussions on these trends and reforms as well as frank appraisals of the consequences of alternative policies. Experts from Europe, the United States and the emerging economies of Brazil, China and India approach pension reform and reassessment from different perspectives; however, each provide forthright analyses and assessment of the consequences of the "new normal".