The Chilean pension reform of 1981, a shift from an unfunded to a funded scheme, is considered to have contributed to this country's excellent economic performance. Positive growth effects allow, in principle, a Pareto-improving shift in pension financing. This paper highlights the theoretical...

A welfare-based measure is proposed to evaluate the distributive effects of public programs. The measure differs from traditional approaches in two ways: first, it is based on life-cycle considerations, since most public expenditure programs have an intertemporal objective; second, it takes into...

[eng] Robert Holzmann, Lynne Sherburne-Benz and Emil Tesliuc — Management of social risk : the World Bank and social protection in a world of globalisation . Social protection is back on the development agenda. Long-time dismissed as ineffective, expensive or even detrimental to development in...

This paper presents a World Bank led and Russia trust fund financed work program to measure financial capability and the effectiveness of financial education in low and middle income countries. The two activities and their staging have been motivated by the lessons of high income countries with...

The paper outlines a forward-looking role of social protection against the background of increasing concerns about risk, and vulnerability, exemplified by the recent East Asian crisis, the concerns of the World Development Report (WDR) 2000, the need for a better understanding of poverty...

This paper argues that it is important to take into account unfunded public pension liabilities as part of an assessment of the overall fiscal situation, including the fiscal positions of pension schemes pre and post reforms. It examines the concept of the implicit pension debt (IPD) and...

This report focuses primarily on the mechanics of financing the transition from an unfunded pension scheme with equates with hidden public debt to a funded scheme which makes this debt explicit, and on the financial stocks and flows involved. Only if the problem is treated in a consistent...

The paper provides a first investigation into the portability of pension and health care benefits for international migrants. It is based on available literature and newly minted data, but more importantly on selective case studies from main migrant-sending and receiving countries. While...