Download or read book Pension Reform and Capital Market Development written by Dimitri Vittas and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2000 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Private pension funds are neither necessary nor sufficient for capital market development. But if they are subject to conducive regulations, adopt optimizing policies, and operate in a pluralistic structure, they can have a large impact on capital market modernization and development once they reach a critical mass.

Download or read book Pension Reform and Capital Market Development Feasibility and Impact Preconditions written by Dimitri Vittas and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Private pension funds are neither necessary nor sufficient for capital market development. But if they are subject to conducive regulations, adopt optimizing policies, and operate in a pluralistic structure, they can have a large impact on capital market modernization and development once they reach a critical mass.The link between pension reform and capital market development has become a perennial question, raised every time the potential benefits and preconditions of pension reform are discussed. Vittas asks two questions. First, what are the basic feasibility preconditions for the successful launch of a pension reform program? And second, what are the necessary impact preconditions for the realization of the potential benefits of funded pension plans for capital market development?His main conclusion is that the feasibility preconditions are not as demanding as is sometimes assumed. In contrast, the impact preconditions are more onerous. The most important feasibility precondition is a strong and lasting commitment of the authorities to maintaining macroeconomic and financial stability, fostering a small core of solvent and efficient banks and insurance companies, and creating an effective regulatory and supervisory agency. Opening the domestic banking and insurance markets to foreign participation can easily fulfill the second requirement. The main impact preconditions include the attainment of critical mass; the adoption of conducive regulations, especially on pension fund investments; the pursuit of optimizing policies by the pension funds; and a prevalence of pluralistic structures.Vittas also argues that pension funds are neither necessary nor sufficient for capital market development. Other forces, such as advances in technology, deregulation, privatization, foreign direct investment, and especially regional and global economic integration, may be equally important. But pension funds are critical players in symbiotic finance, the simultaneous and mutually reinforcing presence of many important elements of modern financial systems. They can support the development of factoring, leasing, and venture capital companies, all of which specialize in financing new and expanding small firms.This paper - a product of Finance, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study the impact of institutional investing on capital markets. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

Download or read book Pension Reform Investment Restrictions and Capital Markets written by Mr.Jorge Roldos and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2004-09-01 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pension reform in several emerging market countries has been associated with rapid growth in assets under management and a positive impact on the development of local securities markets. However, limitations on such development may lead to asset price distortions, bubbles, and concentration of risks. Regulatory limits on pension fund investments are assessed in light of these risks and developments in modern portfolio theory. A gradual but decisive loosening of restrictions on equity and foreign investments is recommended. Changes in these regulations ought to be coordinated with measures designed to foster the development of local securities markets as well as with macroeconomic policies.

Download or read book Pension Reform and Capital Market Development Feasibility and Impact Preconditions written by Dimitri Vittas and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Pension Reform Financial Market Development and Economic Growth written by Mr.Robert Holzmann and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1996-08-01 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chilean pension reform of 1981, in which Chile moved from an unfunded to a funded scheme, is considered to have contributed to this country’s excellent economic performance since the mid-1980s. The paper highlights the theoretical underpinnings of the claimed economic effects and presents empirical data and preliminary econometric testing of the conjectured growth, capital formation, and saving effects. The empirical evidence is consistent with most of the claims. In particular, the direct impact of financial market development on private saving is found to be negative, which underscores the importance of sound fiscal policy and public saving to support the transition.

Download or read book Pension Reform and Capital Market Development in China written by Yanni Chen and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Pensions Savings and Capital Flows From Ageing to Emerging Markets written by Reisen Helmut and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2000-05-15 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This books explores the international aspects of pension reform, private savings and volatile capital markets and clarifies how they relate to each other.

Download or read book Pension Reform and Capital Markets written by Eduardo Walker and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chilean-style pension reform, leading to the creation of fully-funded privately managed pension systems, may have significant positive direct effects on savings, growth, and welfare. However, the indirect link, via capital market development, may be as important. This hypothesis is verified with evidence from Emerging Economies that have recently engaged in such reforms. Chile, Argentina and Peru are analysed more deeply.There is abundant qualitative and anecdotal evidence that relates pension reform with the accumulation of quot;institutional capitalquot;, with the existence of a dynamic legal framework, with increased professionalism, transparency and integrity and also with a better corporate governance balance. Evidence of increased financial innovation is also found; of bank disintermediation, however, it is not.In addition, the statistical, time-series and panel-data evidence is consistent with the following hypotheses: a reduction in firms' cost of capital; lower security-price volatility; and higher traded volumes. Overall, this indirect channel (Levine and Zervos, 1998) may have important implications for economic growth and productivity.

Download or read book Financial Market Implications of India s Pension Reform written by Ms.Helene Poirson Ward and published by INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India's planned pension reform will set up a proper regulatory framework for the pension industry and open up the sector to private fund managers. Drawing on international experiences, the paper highlights pre-conditions for the reform to kick-start financial development, including: (i) the buildup of critical mass; (ii) sufficiently flexible investment guidelines and regulations, including on investments abroad; and (iii) concurrent reforms in capital markets. Given the limited scale of the planned reform, the key challenge for India is to achieve sufficient critical mass early on. Options to address this challenge include granting permission for existing workers to switch to the new system or outsourcing all or part of the reserves of private sector provident funds to the new pension fund managers.

Download or read book The Political Economy of Pension Reform written by Evelyne Huber and published by Conran Octopus. This book was released on 2000 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since pension schemes-along with health care and education-absorb the largest amount of social expenditure in all countries, their reform has a potentially major impact both on the fiscal situation of the state and on the life chances of citizens who stand to win or lose from new arrangements. This makes pension reform a highly controversial issue; and, except for the addition of new programmes and benefits, major restructuring of existing pension systems has been extremely rare in advanced industrial democracies. It was also rare in Latin America before the 1980s and 1990s. But there has been a great deal of experimentation within the region during the past decade. This paper examines the larger economic, social and political context of Latin American pension reform and compares experiences in different countries of the region with options available in Western European societies during the same period. The authors argue that the type of pension reform undertaken in Latin America has been an integral part of the structural adjustment programmes pursued by Latin American governments, under the guidance of international financial institutions (IFIs). Although there was a range of possible remedies to the problems of pension systems in different Latin American countries, neo-liberal reformers and the international financial institutions preferred privatization over all others. They claimed that privatization would be superior to other kinds of reform in ensuring the financial viability of pension systems, making them more efficient, establishing a closer link between contributions and benefits and promoting the development of capital markets-thus increasing savings and investment. And they were able to push through some of their suggestions for reform in spite of considerable opposition from pensioners, trade unions and opposition political parties. Interestingly enough, their pressure proved least effective in the more democratic countries of the region. In Costa Rica, for example, citizens preferred to reform the public system-eliminating the last pockets of privilege for public sector workers and ensuring that new levels of contribution would be adequate to provide minimum benefits for the aged and infirm. In Uruguay, citizens forced a public referendum, through which they rejected a proposal for privatization. At a later stage, they did permit the introduction of private investment accounts, but not at the cost of eliminating the public programme. In Argentina and Peru, after the legislature refused to authorize partial privatization, this was eventually pushed through by presidential decree. Only in Chile and Mexico has there been a complete shift to private pension funds-but, in both cases, influential sectors of the elite, including the military, have been allowed to keep their previous, publicly managed group funds. Looking at the only privatized pension system in existence long enough to allow for some assessment of its consequences-that of Chile-the authors find that many of the claims made by supporters of privatization are not substantiated by the evidence. The first discrepancy between neo-liberal predictions and the reality of Chilean pension reform has to do with efficiency. All previous claims to the contrary, private individual accounts have proven more expensive to manage than collective claims. In fact, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, by the mid-1990s administration of the Chilean system was the most expensive in Latin America. The second disproved claim involves yield. When administrative costs are discounted, privately held and administered pension funds in Chile show an average annual real return of 5.1 per cent between 1982 and 1998. Furthermore high fees and commissions-charged at a flat rate on all accounts-have proven highly regressive. When levied against a relatively modest retirement account, for example, these standard fees reduced the amount available to the account holder by approximately 18 per cent. When applied to the deposit of an individual investing 10 times more, the reduction was slightly less than 1 per cent. The third discrepancy involves competition. Although it was assumed that efficiency within the private pension fund industry would be associated with renewed competitiveness-while the public pension system represented monopoly-the private sector has in fact become highly concentrated. The three largest pension fund administrators in Chile handle 70 per cent of the insured. And to reduce advertising costs, public regulators are limiting the number of transfers among companies that any individual can make. A fourth unfulfilled promise of privatization in Chile has to do with expansion of coverage. It was assumed that the existence of private accounts would increase incentives for people to take part in the pension sc heme, but in fact this has not happened. Coverage and compliance rates have remained virtually constant. A fifth major claim was that the conversion of the public pension system into privately held and administered accounts would strengthen capital markets, savings and investment. But a number of studies have recently concluded that, at best, this effect has been marginal. And finally, the dimension of gender equity within a fully privatized pension scheme is being subjected to increasing scrutiny. Women typically earn less money and work fewer years than men. Therefore, since pension benefits in private systems are strictly determined by the overall amount of money contributed to them, women are likely to receive considerably lower benefits. Public pension systems, in contrast, have the possibility of introducing credits for childcare that reduce this disadvantage. Sweden is an example of countries that have embarked on this course. In the latter part of the paper, Huber and Stephens widen their comparative framework to include recent pension reforms in advanced industrial countries. There, where economic crisis was not as severe and where pressure from international financial institutions was not significant, much broader options for reform were available. In fact, although long-established systems were under stress, no developed country opted for complete privatization. Complex measures were taken to strengthen the funding base of national pension systems, including changes in investment procedures and changes in rules for calculating pension benefits. Reforms also increased retirement age, as well as the number of years required to qualify for a full pension. But even the most thoroughgoing reforms retained a central role for public schemes in ensuring old-age benefits. In conclusion, the authors consider steps that can be taken to craft pension reforms with more desirable results than those obtained to date in Latin America. They recommend measures that address the problem of an aging population by increasing the ability of each generation to pay for its own pensions-rather than relying primarily on the contributions of preceding generations of insured workers. Pension payments should be invested in a variety of financial instruments and benefits must ultimately be related to the yields obtained. Such a strategy does not require introduction of privately managed, individually held, investment funds. On the contrary, risk is lessened by relying instead on collectively managed funds, in which accounts can either be identified with individuals or-more equitably-with generations of contributors. Reformed public pension systems should also contain minimum "citizenship pensions" that guarantee subsistence income in old age to all individuals as a matter of right. Such a measure, financed from general tax revenue rather than from personal contributions, is not beyond the means of medium income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In fact, some Nordic countries introduced citizenship pensions when their GNP per capita was lower than that of most Latin American countries today.

Download or read book Ageing Pension Reforms and Capital Market Development in the New EU Member States and Other Transition Countries written by Johan Almenberg and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We present new data on asset allocations of mandatory pension funds in the new EU member states and in other transition countries. Our comparative national data presents a unique opportunity to compare pension reform progress across these countries from a capital market perspective. Our main finding is that in a number of new EU member states and other transition countries, under-diversification of assets threatens to undermine the impact of multi-pillar reform on fiscal sustainability.

Download or read book Financial Market Trends Ageing and Pension System Reform Implications for Financial Markets and Economic Policies written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2005-11-16 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This OECD 2005 report, prepared at the request of Deputies of the G10, reviews economic consequences of ageing populations for financial markets and recommends that governments help facilitate development of financial instruments to support retirement savings and pensions.

Download or read book Financial Market Implications of India s Pension Reform written by Hélène Poirson and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: India's planned pension reform will set up a proper regulatory framework for the pension industry and open up the sector to private fund managers. Drawing on international experiences, the paper highlights pre-conditions for the reform to kick-start financial development, including: (i) the buildup of critical mass; (ii) sufficiently flexible investment guidelines and regulations, including on investments abroad; and (iii) concurrent reforms in capital markets. Given the limited scale of the planned reform, the key challenge for India is to achieve sufficient critical mass early on. Options to address this challenge include granting permission for existing workers to switch to the new system or outsourcing all or part of the reserves of private sector provident funds to the new pension fund managers.

Download or read book Pension Reform Insitutional Investors Growth and Stock Market Development in the Developing Countries Does it Function written by Aneta Hryckiewicz and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For almost one decade, the developing countries have tried to spur the development of their local capital markets. However, despite the initiated macroeconomic and financial reforms, the performance of the securities markets has remained relatively weak for most of the time. The recent dramatic growth of the institutional investors' assets has raised new hope for these countries. In this paper, we evaluate an empirical link between recent institutional assets' growth, institutional behaviour and stock market performance in the developing countries. Using the GMM technique on the panel of eight Central and Eastern European (CEE) developing countries over the period of 1994-2006, our results indicate that institutional development exerts a robust and significant impact on the securities markets' growth in the developing countries. In particular, we find that institutional investors contribute to the greater activity of the emerging capital markets and this effect is a result of higher demand for the local securities induced by these institutions. In addition, in countries where the institutional investors actively participate in the corporate governance, their presence possibly reduces the cost of capital for firms and also positively influences the stock market capitalization. Our findings suggest that the pension reform has contributed significantly to the institutional development and stock market growth in the CEE countries. However, we find that magnitude of these effects depends on the pension scheme a country relies upon. These effects are also exogenous to the structure of the economy in these countries.

Download or read book Pension Reform in Southeastern Europe written by Robert Holzmann and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Around the world, pension reform remains at the center of public debate. Its social, fiscal, and macroeconomic implications confront policy makers, practitioners, and academia with challenging questions. Pension systems in aging societies--in need of reform and further stressed by the pressures of globalization--require parallel reforms of the labor market and effective lifelong learning, not only to promote working longer, but to ensure that people can actually do so. At the same time, the working population should be motivated to contribute to pension schemes and prepare for old age. Diversify.

Download or read book Stock market development under globalization whither the gains from reforms written by Augusto de la Torre, Sergio L. Schmukler, Juan Carlos Gozzi and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Over the past decades, many countries have implemented significant reforms to foster domestic capital market development. These reforms included stock market liberalization, privatization programs, and the establishment of regulatory and supervisory frameworks. Despite the intense reform efforts, the performance of capital markets in several countries has been disappointing. To study whether reforms have had the intended effects on capital markets, the authors analyze the impact of six capital market reforms on domestic stock market development and internationalization using event studies. They find that reforms tend to be followed by significant increases in domestic market capitalization, trading, and capital raising. Reforms are also followed by an increase in the share of activity in international equity markets, with potential negative spillover effects on domestic markets.

Download or read book Old Age Security written by Ramgopal Agarwala and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The seventh edition of this annual report reviews the long-term prospects for developing countries in light of changes in the global environment and provides a detailed discussion of selected aspects of the global integration process in those countries. The first chapter evaluates prospects for the major elements of the external environment affecting developing countries and the medium-to-long-term outlook for developing countries themselves. The report forecasts that the external environment for developing countries remains broadly favorable. Among the main policy challenges faced by these countries is their ability to adapt to long-run shifts in market opportunities and heightened competitive pressures brought on by global trade liberalization--now increasingly focused on liberalization of trade in services--rising global production, and other forms of global integration. The chapter considers the implications for the world economy of rapid growth and integration in large developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil in the period to 2020. The second chapter looks at the move toward greater globalization of production, broadly defined as cross-border production by multinational enterprises and their networks of affiliates, subcontractors, and other partners. Within this context, the chapter addresses the significance of global production in world output in main groups of countries and economic sectors; factors driving the trend toward global production, including heightened competition, worldwide policy liberalization, and rapid technological progress; the benefits that developing countries can derive from global production, such as new technologies and improved efficiency practices; and the issues for policymakers seeking to enhance participation in global production and maximize its benefits for host countries.