Pension Systems in Latin America: Concepts and Measurements of Coverage

Pension systems’ performance around the world can be usually assessed by considering three dimensions: coverage, adequacy, and sustainability. This paper focuses on the coverage dimension, looking at empirical data in Latin America. It represents a review and expansion of a previous analysis (such as Rofman and Carranza, 2005), as it corrects a few methodological problems and expands the timeframe. Data were available for 18 countries, for a period that starts in the early 1990s to the mid 2000s. Recognizing the difficulties involved in comparing the available information, the paper presents a group of similar indicators that make it possible to measure coverage in the various countries, both among active workers and among the elderly. In addition, several socio-demographic characteristics of the covered population are presented and discussed, identifying relevant differentials. The covariates taken into account in the study are: age, geographical areas, sector of employment, level of education, gender, occupation, firm size, and income quintiles.