Event Date and Time
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The Maryland Center for Economics and Policy partnered with the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to organize the sixth LACEA conference. This the conference topic was “Pensions and Labor Markets: Challenges for the Americas.” The conference was on March 3 and 4, 2016 in Washington, DC.

Background. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of studies that propose reforms to public and private pension systems. The literature on this topic has been dominated by studies examining the pension systems of high income countries. The pension systems of developing countries have received much less attention. As a result, there is a great deal we do not know about their coverage, benefit adequacy, re-distributional impacts, efficiency and sustainability, and institutional issues that may affect system performance. Research ws presented on these topics, including papers that address the share of the elderly receiving pensions and their benefit levels, pension system coverage and projected benefits among current workers, within-system inequalities, the labor market incentives created by pension systems, the anticipated effects of population aging, the role of information and skills on projected benefits, the sustainability of existing pension systems, and emerging social pension schemes, among others. The conference agenda as well as links to the papers and presentations follow.

Agenda

 
Day I: Thursday, March 3rd
9:00
Welcome  
  • Prof. Katharine Abraham, Maryland Center for Economics and Policy, University of Maryland 
9:15-10:15 
 Keynote Speaker 
10:15-11:45 

Invited Papers I 

  • Dying to Retire: Adverse Selection and Welfare in Social Security. Andrew Beauchamp and Mathis Wagner (Boston College) link to paper   slides
  • Pension income indexation: A mean-variance approach. Rodrigo LLuberas (Uruguay Central Bank and Universidad ORT) link to paper
  • How the Design of a Pension System Influences Old Age Poverty and Gender Equity: A Study of Chile’s Private Retirement Accounts System. Clement Joubert (World Bank) and Petra E. Todd (University of Pennsylavania) link to paper   slides
12:00-1:30
 Lunch
1:30-3:30
Invited Papers II
  • Pensions for all: Towards an inclusive and sustainable system for Argentina.  Nicolás Ajzenman and Pilar Tavella (Harvard Kennedy School of Government). link to paper   slides
  • The General Regime of Social Security in Brazil: recent past and prospects for the future.                       Marcelo Caetano, Rogerio  Costanzi, Leonardo Rangel (Institute for Applied Economic Research - IPEA),  Graziela Ansiliero, Eduardo da Silva Pereira, Luis Paiva (Brazilian Ministry of Planning) link to paper
  • Understanding the effects of non-contributory pension programs in Bolivia. Werner L. Hernani-Limarino & Gary Mena (Fundación Aru) link to paper
  • How do we should charge administrative fees in an individual capitalization pension system? The case of Perú. Noelia Bernal, Daniel Castillo, Nicolas Dominguez (University of Piura) and Javier Olivera (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research) link to paper   slides
3:30 Coffee Break
4:00-5:30
Round Table: Technical challenges for more equitable and sustainable pensions
  • Carmen Pagés-Serra IADB
  • Eduardo Lora Harvard link to working paper
  • Carmelo Mesa-Lagos Professor, University of Pittsburgh
  • Salvador Valdés Professor, Universidad Católica de Chile & Clapes-UC slides
 

Day II: Friday, March 4th 
9:00-10:00

Keynote Speaker

Prof. Ronald Lee, University of California, Berkeley                                               
10:00 Coffee Break 
10:15-12:30

Round Table: The Political Economy of Pensions in Latin America

  • Alejandro Ferreiro Corpvida, former Superintendent of Pensions of Chile & Minister of Economy of Chile
  • Solange Berstein Senior Specialist at the Labor Markets and Social Security Unit, IADB
  • Santiago Montenegro President of the Colombian Pension Fund Association, Asofondos, and former cabinet Minister as Director of National Planning
  • Luis Valdivieso President of the Pension Fund Associations of Perú, former Ministry of Economy and Finance of Perú
 

Organizers:

  • Mariano Bosh (IADB)  and Sergio Urzúa (U. of Maryland)

Co-directors, The Labor Network
 
  

 

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