This paper provides a detailed examination of individuals' active participation in a new public and mandatory defined contribution pension system. The new pension system was launched in the fall of 2000 and entitles Sweden's workforce of 4.4 million individuals to invest part of their individual...

We use historical data on investment returns and labour income from sixteen countries to quantify the value and risk of defined contribution pension plans, building frequency distributions of pension fund and pension replacement ratios for each country. We show that pension risk is substantial,...

In this paper we analyze the consequences of pension funding in a general equilibrium model of both formal schooling decisions and on-the-job human capital formation à la Heckman, Lochner and Taber (1998). Our focus lies on the distortive and redistributive effects of a Bismarckian pension...

We analyze the political stability of capital funded social security. In particular, using a stylized theoretical framework we study the mechanisms behind governments capturing pension assets in order to lower current taxes. This is followed by an analysis of the analogous mechanisms in a...

One of the most important consequences of the Chilean pension reform undertaken in the early 1980s was to transfer a significant portion of the risk associated to the financing of pensions, from the State, to the pension fund participants of the newly established compulsory pension system. This...

This paper considers the use of an inheritance tax and payout restrictions to fund guarantees on a multi-pillar pension plan. A simulation model for a guaranteed multi-pillar benefit based on a pension plan similar to the old Chilean pension system reveals that the delivery of an economically...

A two factor stochastic model is introduced for the two phases of a defined-contribution pension scheme. During the accumulation phase of the pension, the scheme member invests part of their stochastic income in a portfolio of a risky stock and a bond in order to build up sufficient funds for...

The paper examines the dominant views on the adoption of mandatory Fully Funded pension schemes (FF) as a partial or complete substitute for the unfunded PAYG. Three obstacles to the FF reform are envisaged. To begin with, the reform may fail to boost workers' marginal propensity to save, since...

The investment practices of public pension funds have become a topic of major interest in the wake of President Clinton's 1999 proposal to invest a portion of the Social Security Trust Funds in equities. Both supporters and opponents of the proposal point to the performance of public plans to...

The investment practices of public pension funds have become a topic of major interest in the wake of President Clinton's 1999 proposal to invest a portion of the Social Security Trust Funds in equities. This study explores four possible avenues through which social or political considerations...