Progress and Challenges of Nonfinancial Defined Contribution Pension Schemes

Abstract

This is the third publication to analyze progress, challenges, and adjustment options of this reform revolution for mandated public pension schemes. The individual account-based but unfunded approach that promises fair and financially sustainable benefits is a reform benchmark for all pension schemes. Nonfinancial defined contribution (NDC) schemes originated in the 1990s independently in Italy and Sweden, were then adopted by Latvia, Poland, and Norway, envisaged but not implemented in various other countries (such as Egypt and Russia), and remain under discussion in many countries across the world (such as China and France). In its complete form, the approach also comprises budget-financed basic income provisions and mandated or voluntary funded provisions.

Volume 1 offers an assessment of early reform countries before addressing key aspects of policy implementation and design review, including: how to best combine basic income provisions with NDC; how to deal with heterogeneity in longevity; and how to adjust NDC design and labor market policies to deliver on reform expectations. Volume 2 addresses a second set of important issues, including: the gender pension gap and what family policies can do within the NDC frame; the administrative challenges of NDCs and how countries are coping; the role of communication in NDCs; and the complexity of cross-border pension taxation, and much more.