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Pension systems and their reforms may have a different impact on men and women because of their different employment histories and demographic characteristics. This paper examines the design of pension systems from a gender perspective. We describe the features of systems and analyse their expected effects on incentives, pension benefits and income distribution for men and women. Empirical results show estimates of the outcomes for men and women in the new Swedish pension system.

This paper analyzes consumption to evaluate the distributional effects of pension reforms. Using Swedish administrative data, we show that on average, workers who retire earlier consume less while retired and experience larger drops in consumption around retirement. Interpreted via a theoretical model, these findings imply that reforms incentivizing later retirement incur a substantial consumption smoothing cost. Turning to other features of pension policy, we find that reforms that redistribute based on early-career labor supply would have opposite-signed redistributive effects, while differentiating on wealth may help to target pension benefits toward those who are vulnerable to larger drops in consumption around retirement. (JEL E21, G51, H23, H55, J22, J26)

This paper analyses early results of the 2004 Nigerian pension
reform. At the beginning of 2010, the new system of privately managed, funded pension accounts covered around four million Nigerians in a country with a workforce of around 50 million people. The study focuses on shortcomings of the new system. Most crucially, the reform has failed to contribute to basic social security in old age for the majority of Nigerians employed in the informal sector. Moreover, the minority of covered workers are also likely to experience
problems. The study demonstrates in a model calculation that the funded
accounts have so far produced negative real returns for pension savers. It is suggested that shortcomings of the current system are unlikely to be addressed by reform within the existing paradigm and that alternative policies, such as noncontributory universal social pensions, should be considered to expand basic social security in the Nigerian context.

This paper analyses early results of the 2004 Nigerian pension reform. At the beginning of 2010, the new system of privately managed, funded pension accounts covered around four million Nigerians in a country with a workforce of around 50 million people. The study focuses on shortcomings of the new system. Most crucially, the reform has failed to contribute to basic social security in old age for the majority of Nigerians employed in the informal sector. Moreover, the minority of covered workers are also likely to experience problems. The study demonstrates in a model calculation that the funded accounts have so far produced negative real returns for pension savers. It is suggested that shortcomings of the current system are unlikely to be addressed by reform within the existing paradigm and that alternative policies, such as noncontributory universal social pensions, should be considered to expand basic social security in the Nigerian context.

This paper analyzes various reform options for Japan's public pension in light of large fiscal consolidation needs of the country. The most attractive option is to increase the pension eligibility age in line with high and rising life expectancy. This would have a positive effect on long-run economic growth and would be relatively fair in sharing the burden of fiscal adjustment between younger and older generations. Other attractive options include better targeting by "clawing back" a small portion of pension benefits from wealthy retirees, reducing preferential tax treatment of pension benefit incomes, and collecting contributions from dependent spouses of employees, who are currently eligible for pension benefits even though they make no contributions. These options, if implemented concurrently, could reduce the government annual subsidy and the government deficit by up to 1¼ percent of GDP by 2020.

The Personal Pension Scheme (PPS) introduced in Chile in 1981 has acquired a paradigmatic role for pension reforms in developing countries. In contrast to the significant gender gap in private pension coverage observed in other countries, in Chile women's participation in the PPS is marginally higher than men's. Using cross-section data the paper analyses the determinants of personal pension plan contribution in Chile, and their effects. It concludes that women's strong pension propensities and pension plan design explain in large part the absence of a gender gap in private pension coverage in Chile. (DSE/DÜI)