Stephen J. Kay

Social Security at the Crossroads: Toward Effective Pension Reform in Latin America

Individual pension savings accounts in Latin America promised to improve compliance and raise benefits in a cost-effective manner, while at the same time raising savings rates, which would in turn promote economic growth. A review of the evolution of pension reform in Latin America shows results to have been mixed. Analyses of the recent reforms generally fail to consider the extent to which the success or failure of pension systems is driven by exogenous factors, including macroeconomic and labour market conditions, and institutions. A number of recent studies have issued a reassessment of the regions reforms that stresses the importance of a basic guaranteed pension benefit and recognizes that a range of alternatives are viable in the region. Pension systems based on individual accounts are undergoing a thorough reevaluation.

New Political Legacies and the Politics of Health and Pension Re-reforms in Chile

Chile was a pioneer in introducing market competition into its largely public-dominated health and pension systems. Numerous countries followed Chile’s lead in privatizing pension provision; US President George W. Bush looked to Chile’s pension reform as a model for the United States to follow. Chile’s health reforms were also pioneering in that it was the first Latin American country to introduce private health providers and insurers into a largely public health care system, inspiring similar market-based reforms across the Latin American region. Yet, despite international and regional leadership in health and pension reforms, Chileans themselves have been less than satisfied with the new market-based systems. This discontent has manifested in recent “re-reforms” of both health and pension policies in Chile during the 2000s. The democratically elected center-left governments of Ricardo Lagos and Michele Bachelet attempted to pass reforms in which the state would increase its oversight over these social policy areas and would compensate to a greater degree for market failures.

A REFORMA DA PREVIDÊNCIA BRASILEIRA NO ÂMBITO DE UM MERCADO DE TRABALHO HETEROGÊNEO

Em 2017, o debate legislativo do Brasil foi envolvido por uma ampla proposta de reforma da previdencia e da seguridade para gerar contencao de custos fiscais com a elevacao da idade de aposentadoria, reducao das taxas de reposicao, ambas com fortes implicacoes sobre a equidade. O presente artigo analisa a esforco para reformar a previdencia no contexto das reformas anteriores, focalizando as questoes fiscais e seus potenciais impactos sobre o mercado de trabalho. O argumento central destaca que a promocao do desenvolvimento envolve as questoes fiscais, a taxa de dependencia demografica e as do mercado de trabalho, mantendo os pressupostos centrais da Constituicao Federal de 1988. Palavras-chave : Previdencia social. Mercado de trabalho. Reforma previdenciaria.