Costa Rican pension system: options for reform

Asli Demirguc-Kunt and Anita Schwarz

No 1483, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: The Costa Rican Social Insurance Fund - the country's main social security institution - was established in 1941 to provide compulsory social insurance coverage for employees, through old-age, disability, and survivor pensions, as well as sickness and maternity benefits. The current status of the pension system is alarming, and reform is urgently needed. Among other things: 1) the system is costly to the government; 2) it promises generous benefits that are difficult to sustain; 3) contribution rates are low; 4) the link between contributions and benefits is weak; 5) inflation indexing is inadequate and ad hoc; 6) although there is no explicit early retirement system, individuals have found a substitute for early retirement in disability pensions; 7) health benefits to pensioners are paid out of pension contributions; and 8) the system's reserves have not been well invested. Reform of the system should be immediate. At a minimum, reform should include: reduced benefits; higher contribution rates; a higher retirement age; a stronger link between contributions and benefits; and the unbundling of health and pension accounts.

Keywords: Pensions&Retirement Systems; Information Technology; Public Health Promotion; Environmental Economics&Policies; Economic Theory&Research; Pensions&Retirement Systems; Environmental Economics&Policies; Banks&Banking Reform; Economic Theory&Research; Information Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995-06-30
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSC ... d/PDF/multi_page.pdf (application/pdf)

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:wbk:wbrwps:1483

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi (ryazigi@worldbank.org).