Pension Systems and Reform: Country Experiences and Research Issues

June 1995 Country experiences of old-age social security arrangements, and 15 research and policy design issues not addressed in the literature. Pension reform is spreading around the globe, from Latin America to the OECD countries, and major reform projects are being discussed in many other developing, transition, and OECD countries. Arrau and Schmidt-Hebbel survey current research issues and country experiences related to old-age social security arrangements by introducing the papers selected for a special June 1994 issue of the Revista de Análisis Económico and presented at the July 1994 Conference on Pension Systems and Reforms sponsored by Fundação Getúlio Vargas. They also present 15 research and policy design issues not addressed by the literature, including macroeconomic effects, conditions of political economy, government's role in easing or reducing old-age poverty, and design features of fully funded pension systems. This paper---a product of the Macroeconomics and Growth Division, Policy Research Department---is part of a larger effort in the department to understand macroeconomic and financial aspects of pension systems.