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Determinants of second pillar pension reforms: economic crisis and globalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2019

Joelle H. Fong*
Affiliation:
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Markus Leibrecht
Affiliation:
Henley Business School, University of Reading, Johor, Malaysia
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: j.fong@nus.edu.sg

Abstract

In this paper, we examine reforms characterized by the establishment of mandatory funded privately-managed schemes in the social security framework. We construct a new dataset to analyze the determinants of pension reforms over 1980–2012 in about 100 medium and large economies around the world. Our results highlight the fundamental importance of economic forces in explaining the speed of reforms after adjusting for the confounding effects of demographic and geopolitical factors. Countries with greater globalization growth and a history of economic crisis experienced a shorter time until reform. These findings are robust to variations in empirical methodology.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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