This paper describes the recent reformsof pension policies adopted by Argentina and Chile. Thestructural reforms in the 1980s and 90s were targeted onimproving the long term fiscal sustainability of the systemand their institutional design, while transferring part ofthe economic and social risks from the State toparticipants. However, in recent year s authorities in bothcountries coincided on identifying insufficient coverageamong the elderly and adequacy of benefits as the mostcritical problems. As a result of differences in politicaleconomy and institutional constraints, responses weredifferent. In Chile, a long and participatory processresulted in a large reform that focuses on impacts on themedium term, through a carefully calibrated adjustment. InArgentina, instead, reforms were adopted through a largenumber of successive normative corrections, with littlepublic debate about their implications, and immediateimpacts on coverage and fiscal demands.
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