We explore voluntary participation in pension arrangements. Individuals only participate when participation is more attractive than autarky. The benefit of participation is that risks can be shared with future generations. We apply our analysis to a pay-as-you-go system, a funded system without...

We explore the feasibility of a funded pension system with intergenerational risk sharing when participation in the system is voluntary. Typically, the willingness of the young to participate depends on their belief about the future young's willingness to do so. We characterise equilibria with...

This paper contributes to the discussion about mandatory participation in collective funded pension schemes. It explores under what circumstances individual participants exercise the option to exit such scheme if participation is voluntary. First, we show how the willingness to participate...

We explore the implications of alternative methods of discounting future pension outlays for the valuation of funded pension liabilities. Measured liabilities affect the asset-liability ratio of pension funds and, thereby, their policies. Our framework for analysis is an applied many-generation...

Funded social security programs are particularly vulnerable to economic and financial market shocks. As a consequence of the recent crisis, a large fraction of the Dutch pension funds had to submit restoration plans for the recovery of their buffers. Such plans will have to rely primarily on a...

Rising longevity and falling fertility threaten the sustainability of pay-as-you-go pension chemes. This paper shows that maintaining the intergenerational balance in the Dutch pay-as-you-go pension scheme in the face of increased longevity since the introduction of the scheme in 1957 would have...

A number of trends are changing the nature of social risks and increase the importance of human capital, adaptability and flexibility. This paper discusses the usefulness of a lifecourse perspective in developing proactive social policies that better fit the changing life cycles of individuals...

This paper reviews the literature on the optimal design and regulation of funded pension schemes. We first characterize optimal saving and investment over an individual’s life cycle. Within a stylized modeling framework, we explore optimal individual saving and investing behavior....

Private pension provision faces the challenging task of providing stable income streams during retirement. The challenge has increased markedly in the last decades due to volatile financial markets, falling interest rates and the withdrawal of employers and external insurers as risk bearers of...

The credit crisis has reduced the funding ratios of Dutch pension funds to a historical minimum. Pension funds now face two challenges. The first is to timely restore funding ratios to safe levels without jeopardizing labour market conditions that also have worsened because of the crisis. The...