Pension Fund Capitalism

This book examines the origins and consequences of so-called pension fund capitalism. The author highlights the driving forces behind the privatization of pensions, its forms and tools used in practice, and the risks and costs related to private pensions.

"A masterful and attractive critical review of one of the most controversial subjects confronting billions of workers and pensioners, and the fiscal health of many countries, around the world, with the powerful interests of the global financial industry, whose author is one the most qualified and independent authors on the subject." Manuel Riesco, Centro de Estudios Nacionales de Desarrollo Alternativo (CENDA). Professor Leokadia Orziak presents the radical pension privatization process of recent decades in Latin America and Eastern Europe as an outreach of financial capitalism in an unexpected application to social security. Orziak highlights its adverse fiscal effects, the benefits for financial markets intermediaries at the cost of delivering low pensions for the retiree population at large. The book provides useful insights on the Polish case of pension privatization followed by de-privatization of the pension funds." Andrés Solimano, Founder and Chairman of the International Center for Globalization and Development (CIGLOB).

Autorentext

Leokadia Orziak, Ph.D., is a Full Professor of Economics and Finance, Head of the Department of International Finance at the World Economy Collegium, SGH-Warsaw School of Economics, and the author of numerous scientific publications in the field of pension systems, public finance, and European integration. Her book OFE katastrofa prywatyzacji emerytur w Polsce (OFE the Disaster of Privatization of Pensions in Poland) won the Economicus competition for the best Polish book of 2014 in the field of economics. She was a consultant to the Polish Parliament (Sejm) on bills regarding changes to the pension system. As a member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on the Pension System (in 20142015), she developed, in cooperation with CENDA (Santiago de Chile), a proposal on rebuilding the public PAYG pension system in Chile.

Inhalt

1. Structure of pension systems 2. Neoliberalism as an ideological basis for pension fund capitalism 3. The supporters and instruments of pension privatization 4. Costs and risks associated with private pensions 5. The experience of different countries with pension fund capitalism 6. Poland as a case of pensions privatization failure 7. Conclusion: Pension fund capitalism what next?