International trends in pension provision

Nicholas Barr

Accounting and Business Research, 2009, vol. 39, issue 3, 211-225

Abstract: This paper considers international trends in pension arrangements, starting with lessons from economic theory. The analysis includes recent developments in the economics of information and behavioural economics, developments which call into question conventional arguments in favour of voluntarism and free competition. Section 3 of the paper considers why pension systems are developing the way they are – largely a response to a series of long‐term trends. In light of the discussion in Sections 2 and 3, Section 4 of the paper describes pension systems in a range of countries, and illustrates the wide range of options available to a developed country. Section 5 reflects briefly on accounting standards. The paper offers a number of key messages. Pension systems have multiple objectives. Second, and, in part, a consequence, there is no single best pension system. Third, policy design is not enough – the design of pension systems must be compatible with a country's capacity to implement the design effectively.

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00014788.2009.9663361 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:acctbr:v:39:y:2009:i:3:p:211-225

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RABR20

DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2009.9663361

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting and Business Research is currently edited by Vivien Beattie

More articles in Accounting and Business Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().