Closing the Coverage Gap : The Role of Social Pensions andOther Retirement Income Transfers

Holzmann, Robert ; Robalino, David A. ; Takayama, Noriyuki

World Bank

关键词: ADMINISTRATIVE CHARGES;    ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS;    ADMINISTRATIVE DATA;    ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT;    ASSET HOLDINGS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/978-0-8213-7971-4
RP-ID  :  49318

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The book has four specific objectives:(a) to discuss the role of retirement income transfers inthe context of a strategy for expanding old- age incomesecurity and preventing poverty among the elderly; (b) totake stock of international experience with the design andimplementation of these programs; (c) to identify key policyissues that need to receive attention during the design andimplementation phases; and (d) to offer some preliminarypolicy recommendations and propose next steps. The chapterone discusses the rationale for retirement income transfers.The main justifications are the limited coverage of themandatory pension systems (chapter two) and the risk ofpoverty during old age (chapter three). Chapter four thenexamines the rights, based approach to expansion of socialsecurity coverage based on the conventions andrecommendations of the International Labor Organization(ILO). The middle part of the book deals with internationalexperience. Chapters five, six, and seven reviews selectedprograms in low-income, middle-income, and high-incomecountries, respectively, and chapters eight and nine discussin greater depth the cases of Japan and the Republic ofKorea. The five concluding chapters are concerned withpolicy issues as related to design. Chapter ten presents atypology of retirement income transfers and analyzes thepotential economic impacts of the programs. Chapter elevendeals with financing mechanisms and the problem ofallocative efficiency, given limited resources. Chaptertwelve addresses two key issues related to institutionalarrangements and targeting systems: Should countriesconsider separate programs to target the elderly poorinstead of using the general social assistance system totarget all poor? And, how can current proxy means-testsystems be adapted to target the elderly poor? Chapterthirteen explores in more detail the links between socialpensions and matching contributions in the context of ageneral strategy for expanding coverage. Finally, chapterfourteen provides guidelines for the design of theadministrative systems needed to operationalize the variousprograms. The remainder of this overview summarizes the mainmessages from the subsequent chapters and outlines an agendafor future research and policy analysis. For clarity, itstarts by presenting some definitions pertinent to theretirement income transfers discussed in the book.