Keeping the Promise of Social Security in Latin America

Abstract

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Nonfinancial Defined Contribution Pension Schemes in a Changing Pension World

“…Chile is especially interesting for several reasons. First, individual pension capital accounts managed by the private sector have been functioning for nearly three decades, providing exceptionally rich data and research (see Gill, Packard, and Yermo 2005 and the references therein). Second, the system benefits from strong social and political domestic support, while being at the same time a benchmark for many emerging and industrial economies.…”

Care of Older People in Migration Contexts: Local and Transnational Arrangements Between Peru and Spain

“…If they are fit enough, most Peruvians continue to work well after they are 65. If this is not possible, they seek to receive some income from rents, in addition to the physical and material support they receive from their children (Gill et al 2004). In Spain, by contrast, pensions can be contributory or non-contributory (means-tested).…”

Financial Development: Maturing and Emerging Policy Issues

“…Chile's pioneering example in pension reform had a major demonstration effect throughout Latin America, and many countries adopted similar reforms during the 1990s, including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay (Queisser 1998;de Ferranti, Leipziger, and Srinivas 2002;Gill, Packard, and Yermo 2005). Many transition economies, including Hungary, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia, also adopted Chilean-style pension reforms (Rutkowski 1998(Rutkowski , 2002.…”

“…Arguably, the biggest challenge for pension systems in Latin America and other emerging market economies with large informal sectors is their low coverage (Gill, Packard, and Yermo 2005)-an issue outside the scope of financial development policy and mainly within the scope of social protection policy. Two key issues of the defined-contribution pension system that are of particular concern to financial development policy are how to raise expected replacement rates (the ratio of retirement pension to pre-retirement income) and how to build a sound market for annuities.…”

“…The resources in second-pillar pension funds have been tapped for this purpose (and for general government deficit financing needs), often aided through regulations mandating that a high share of pension fund portfolios be allocated to government paper. It is thus not surprising that the portfolios of most mandatory second-pillar pension funds in Latin America are only weakly diversified and are dominated by government debt securities, with Chile and Peru the exceptions (Gill, Packard, and Yermo 2005;de la Torre and Schmukler 2006).…”