The previous decade has been one of pension reform throughout the world. In high income countries, the driving force has been the threat that current systems will become unaffordable in coming decades, with demographic developments presenting a major risk. In another setting, countries in the...

"Far-reaching changes in the regulation of financial markets and the organization of public pensions in the 1980s and 1990s transformed the landscape for retirement products in Sweden. First, banking and insurance were extensively deregulated in the 1980s, while the securities markets...

"Severance pay, a program that provides compensation to workers on termination of employment, is the most widely used income protection program for the unemployed--yet it is often blamed for creating economic inefficiencies such as reducing employment and limiting access to jobs for...