The development of private pensions in Serbia: caught between a generic blueprint and an unconducive local environment

Nikola Altiparmakov and Gordana Matković
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Nikola Altiparmakov: Member of the Fiscal Council, Republic of Serbia
Gordana Matković: Professor at the Faculty of Finance, Economics and Administration, Belgrade Programme Director at the Centre for Social Policy, former Minister of Social Affairs (2001–2004), Republic of Serbia

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2018, vol. 24, issue 1, 57-71

Abstract: Serbia is one of the rare eastern European countries that decisively dismissed the controversial pension privatisation agenda whereby mandatory private pension funds would be introduced to (partially) replace existing public pay-as-you-go (PAYG) benefits. Instead, Serbia opted for a more traditional western European approach, combining PAYG cost-containment parametric reforms with the introduction of tax-preferred supplementary private pensions. We explain that the desire for equitable intergenerational burden-sharing was one of the key factors behind the decision-making process that made Serbia diverge from regional trends and World Bank orthodoxy. Nonetheless, problems that have plagued mandatory private funds in neighbouring countries, such as excessive operating costs and undiversified portfolios, have also been prevalent in the Serbian voluntary private pension fund industry, which failed to achieve tangible labour market coverage and whose survival has been due mostly to exclusive tax privileges.

Keywords: Pension privatisation; PAYG; supplementary pensions; Serbia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:24:y:2018:i:1:p:57-71

DOI: 10.1177/1024258917746033

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