Long-Term Global Trends in Pension Policy

The paper considers the evolution of pension policy in both developed and developing countries over the last 50 years. It demonstrates that drastic changes occurred in this area at the turn of the century, most likely explained with expectations of a marked acceleration in population aging. Reforms in the 1980s and 1990s were aimed mainly at increasing pension coverage and pension size adequacy, while in the last two decades priority generally shifted to ensuring long-term financial sustainability of pension systems. Pension reforms are becoming more and more common, and preventing further growth of public spending on pension is now their most prevalent objective, raising the retirement age being a major tool for addressing this task. Worth noting is also gradual expansion of a relatively new mechanism, namely defined contribution pension systems (including both funded and unfunded schemes). We assume that these trends taken together evidence a clear turn from extensive to intensive pension policy in the world.