Portability of social benefits acrossprofessions and countries is an increasing concern forindividuals and policy makers. Lacking or incompletetransfers of acquired social rights are feared to negativelyimpact individual labor market decisions as well as capacityto address social risks with consequences for economic andsocial outcomes. The paper gives a fresh and provocativelook on the international perspective of the topic that hasso far been dominated by social policy lawyers workingwithin the framework of bilateral agreements; the input byeconomists has been very limited. It offers an analyticalframework for portability analysis that suggests separatingthe risk pooling, (implicit or actual) pre-funding andredistributive elements in the benefit design and exploresthe proposed alternative approach for pensions and healthcare benefits. This promising approach may serve both as asubstitute and complement to bi- and multilateral agreements.
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