Social Security Reform in Advanced Countries: Evaluating Pension Finance (Routledge Contemporary Economic Policy Issues, 4)

Increasingly ageing populations and a slowing rate of growth in the macroeconomy are forcing advanced countries to reconsider their social security programmes. The need for detailed examination of the possible reforms and initiatives has never been greater. This book brings together internationally-renowned scholars to evaluate the effect of recent social security reforms in advanced countries (pension programmes in particular) and to suggest policy reforms for the future. Including detailed studies of countries including Australia, Germany, Japan, Scandinavia, the UK and the USA, this book will be of essential interest to economists and policy-makers working in pension financing reform, and public economics more generally. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 List of figures......Page 8 List of tables......Page 10 List of contributors......Page 12 Preface......Page 13 Introduction......Page 14 Managing pensions in the twenty-first century: global lessons and implications for Japan......Page 22 Five fallacies in the social security debate......Page 52 Social security privatization and financial market risk: lessons from US financial history......Page 65 Private mandatory retirement provision: design and implementation challenges......Page 94 Switching the Japanese social system from pay-as-you-go to actuarially fair: a simulation analysis......Page 126 Integration of tax and social security systems: on the financing methods of a public pension scheme in a pay-as-you-go system......Page 145 Pension reform in the UK: from contribution to participation......Page 174 Reform of the public pension system in Germany......Page 201 Pension systems and labor force participation in the Nordic countries......Page 219 Public pension reform and welfare in an economy with adverse selection......Page 248 Pensions contributions and capital accumulation under modified funded systems......Page 274 Index......Page 294 Based on developments in selected countries at the turn of the century, investigates controversial pension issues such as unfunded versus funded and American versus European schemes, tax financing, risk aspects, and administration costs in managing funded schemes A large number of advanced countries have problems with their social security systems, in particular public pension systems.