The inverting pyramid : pension systems facing demographic challenges in Europe and Central Asia
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The inverting pyramid : pension systems facing demographic challenges in Europe and Central Asia
(Europe and Central Asia reports)
World Bank, c2014
Available at 13 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Other authors: Omar S. Arias, Asta Zviniene, Heinz P. Rudolph, Sebastian Eckardt, Johannes Koettl, Herwig Immervoll, Miglena Abels
Includes bibliographical references
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Europe’s pension systems –among the most celebrated features of its social welfare model— face tremendous challenges. With only 11 percent of the world’s population, Europe spends about 60 percent of global outlays on social protection, largely in pensions. In many countries, pension rules have encouraged people to retire sooner, while enjoying longer lives. Payroll taxes on a continuously expanding contributory base have financed these benefits. This model of pension provision is now being severely tested as pension systems reach maturity, while the population is aging and the labour force is starting to shrink.
Measures to enable a continued tradition of providing old age security will include:
raising retirement ages such that pensions are provided in the last 15 years of life, when work capacity traditionally diminishes
encouraging immigration to help fill the declining work force
rationalising pension spending, putting priority on preventing old age poverty, and
encouraging savings to help provide the more comfortable retirement that individuals have come to expect.
Some measures may be more appropriate in particular countries than others, yet undertaking all of them will likely require less drastic changes in any one of them. The specific choices will need to be discussed and agreed among each country’s own population, and be accompanied by enabling changes in pension policy, tax policy, financial markets policy, and labour policy. The fundamental issue is that, with these changes, the important achievements of European social policy can withstand the demographic onslaught and continue to provide old age security for generations to come.
by "Nielsen BookData"