Social Security Individual Accounts in China: Toward Sustainability in Individual Account Financing

Sustainability

Tianhong Chen¹ 

[1] Centre for Social Security Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China

关键词: social security;    individual account;    implicit pension debt;    China;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su6085049

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

China has both mandatory and voluntary individual account pensions that are provided through the government. The experience of China makes a particularly interesting case study concerning the functioning of individual accounts in that its mandatory individual accounts have been defunded to pay for benefits in the associated pay-as-you-go system, while its voluntary individual accounts are fully funded. This paper examines three questions. First, it analyses why the mandatory individual accounts have become defunded and converted largely to notional accounts generally holding little in financial assets, while the voluntary accounts have been fully funded. Second, it examines the merits of funding versus pay-as-you-go financing of pensions in the context of China’s economic and demographic situation. Third, it discusses a policy change to insure the sustainability of financing for the defunded individual accounts. The experience of China, with its two types of individual accounts, and with different outcomes for those accounts, may provide lessons for other countries.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.