Social Security and Pension Systems: The Deep Stratification of Latin American Societies

Social policy expansion and segmentation in the first two decades of the 21st century in Latin America

“…As Rofman et al (2015) have shown, the latter can be as low as 8% of the average contributory pension benefit (as is the case in Bolivia; Table 1). For this reason, as Cruz-Martinez et al point out, their adequacy is questionable when a large proportion of older adults are compelled to continue working (Cruz-Martínez et al, 2021).…”

Universal Social Pensions Are Unaffordable … Not! Testing the Unaffordability Hypothesis in Latin America and the Caribbean

“…Third, even though there has been an increase in the coverage rate of pensions, there is still a long road ahead for universal coverage (Migdalia, Ordoñez, & Valencia, 2018;Sojo, 2017;Cruz-Martínez et al, 2021). The share of people in Latin America and the Caribbean aged 65 or older who receive a retirement pension is -on average -38 per cent (CEDLAS & World Bank, 2016).…”

Carmelo Mesa-Lago,Evaluation of Four Decades of Pension Privatization in Latin America, 1980–2020: Promises and Reality. Mexico City: Fundación Friedrich Ebert, 2021. Figures, tables, abbreviations, notes, bibliography, appendixes, 204 pp

“…The solutions to the various demands and limitations caused by problems related to public pension finances are not usually reached in a single reform process. For example, Latin America is a region where old age pensions have been an essential axis for developing welfare regimes or schemes since the 1920s, with a heavy inheritance of fragmentation and segmentation that reproduced labor market inequalities (Cruz-Martínez et al 2021). The current challenges are characterized by a context of inclusion of the excluded in the form of noncontributory pensions, while contributory schemes experience financing difficulties and worsening future sustainability, due to factors related to the demographic structure of the countries (Arenas de Mesa 2019).…”