This paper examines the impact of social pensions on old‐age poverty. To achieve causal identification, we leverage the reduction in the minimum eligibility age of Mexico's flagship non‐means‐tested social pension program. We find that the program's expansion significantly reduced extreme poverty, mainly among indigenous seniors and in rural areas. However, it had negligible effects on labor force...

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This paper investigates whether the expectation of a future lifetime survivor pension affects the educational choices of individuals and their families, focusing on the case of military daughters in Brazil. To assess this effect, we exploit a policy reform in the early 2000s that eliminated permanent pensions. The empirical analysis is based on microdata on daughters of different cohorts, and the...

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Redistributive so-called social pension schemes have seen a remarkable surge in developing countries. These schemes often target the rural elderly and correlate with urbanization rates, urban rural-wage differentials, and family norms. We use this stylized evidence to motivate a political economy model for a Beveridgean pension system with trade-offs between four groups: the (poorer) rural old and...

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This paper develops an overlapping generations model that links a public health system to a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension system. It relies on two assumptions. First, the health system directly finances curative health spending on the elderly. Second, public pensions partially depend on health status by introducing a component indexed to society's average level of old-age disability. Reducing the...

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Este documento presenta proyecciones sobre el gasto fiscal asociado con Colpensiones y los regímenes especiales que conforman el sistema pensional de Colombia con las normas vigentes en 2024. Bajo supuestos convencionales sobre longevidad, formalidad y una tasa de crecimiento económico de largo plazo del 3,3%, el gasto público en pensiones se mantendría en niveles inferiores al 3,6% del PIB...

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Latin American countries have been at the forefront of pension privatization and since 2008 they have also pioneered reform reversals. Previous studies have focused on single cases or a small number of them, given that pension reform is a complex phenomenon arising from the combination of different causes. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), the article analyzes a set of 32...

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Citizens and politicians rely on their knowledge of a pension system, particularly its redistributive features, when forming their preferences and evaluating its fairness. Taking advantage of the Bismarckian rule of proportionality in Germany, we provide experimental and survey-based evidence indicating that voters and politicians adjust their preferences and perceptions of fairness when new...

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This paper takes stock of Chile’s defined contribution pension system and assesses reform options aimed at increasing replacement rates. An international comparison shows that, despite being quite influential when established, it is now delivering low replacement rates relative to OECD peers, as its parameters did not adapt over time to changing demographics, declining global returns,...

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In the wake of the global turmoil unleashed by COVID-19, Latin America and the Caribbean faces a glaring gap in understanding the impact of the pandemic on pension systems. Through a collaboration between research centers across the region and the Inter-American Development Bank, this book aims to fill that gap. Case studies focusing on Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, and Peru explore the...

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Chile implemented large pension withdrawals during the Covid pandemic. Afterwards, Chile increased non-contributory benefits in a quasi-universal scheme. Simulating future pensions, I show that the average loss in contributory pension income is 27.9%, with losses of 23.9% and 31.4% for men and women, respectively. After accounting for public transfers, the average loss in total pension income is...

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