A Quarter Century of Pension Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean: Lessons Learned and Next Steps

The social security equation is worsening around the world with the aged population growing faster than the labor force. In the last two decades of the twentieth century, the Latin American and the Caribbean region was faced with what seemed insurmountable difficulties in this regard. Social security expenses had grown with the inflation and upward adjustments of wages and widespread tax evasion. Within this framework, several countries in the region undertook a profound overhaul of their social security systems, replacing them fully or partially with a privately managed and invested system. These far-reaching reforms have changed the way social security is viewed and, as a consequence, policymakers around the world are looking at the experience of the region. A Quarter Century of Pension Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean provides an analysis of these reforms, what worked well, what did not, what are the lessons learned and what are the next steps.