Social Security at The Crossroads: Toward Effective Pension Reform in Latin America

Individual pension savings accounts in Latin America promised to improve compliance and raise benefits in a cost‐effective manner, while at the same time raising savings rates, which would in turn promote economic growth. A review of the evolution of pension reform in Latin America shows results to have been mixed. Analyses of the recent reforms generally fail to consider the extent to which the success or failure of pension systems is driven by exogenous factors, including macroeconomic and labour market conditions, and institutions. A number of recent studies have issued a reassessment of the region's reforms that stresses the importance of a basic guaranteed pension benefit and recognizes that a range of alternatives are viable in the region. Pension systems based on individual accounts are undergoing a thorough reevaluation.     

Poverty and Social Policy in Latin America

Most indicators of human development in Latin America improved considerably until the early 1980s. Unfortunately, the debt crisis which hit most countries in the region during the 1980s badly dented the social record. Not only did it increase the number of people living in poverty but it led to a profound change in the nature of the development model. Neo-liberal economic thought and the lessons of the debt crisis convinced one Latin American state after another that it should follow a different development path.
Economic stabilization and structural adjustment had a profound effect on poverty in the region. Most families became poorer, particularly those living in the cities. Structural adjustment and the new economic model also modified the role of the state. Increasingly, Latin American governments stopped giving general subsidies and introduced a strategy of targeting subsidies at the poor. In places, the new strategy will no doubt provide an adequate safety net, but in others it will fail to provide sufficient help for the poor. All we can predict is that poverty will long remain regrettably common in most parts of Latin America. In places, economic growth will undoutedly reduce poverty but it is not at all easy to predict where it will be reduced. In this respect Latin America is very much like the rest of the world. Globalization has opened up local economies to international competition and offered them the prospect of selling local goods to foreign markets. How many Latin American economies will benefit from the new situation will determine how the poor will fare. Unfortunately, the state's ability to deal with any subsequent poverty has been greatly reduced. That, too, is part and parcel of the process of globalization.     

The Role of Insurance in Social Protection in Latin America

Social protection schemes in Latin America face serious short falls in the financial resources available to meet their needs. New types of insurance envisaged in reforms should help to contain costs and increase coverage. However, in strengthening schemes' coverage it is highly probable that considerable demand for additional financial resources will arise to address the need to introduce the principle of solidarity into the system. This article examines reforms in the financing of social security for healthcare and pensions, highlighting the implications of various public-private combinations for financial management and coverage.     

Social Policy and Development in Latin America: The Long View

In the new development strategy currently shaping Latin America, alternative social policy models have emerged. This article argues that far from being rival alternatives, each of these models considers the wide differences among countries. The region is emerging from a century of transformation – from a traditional agrarian economy to an urban industrial one – in which countries have taken diverse historical paths. Some have almost completed this transformation, others are taking early steps, and the vast majority are living through it. State‐led transition has followed two successive development strategies. From the 1920s up to the 1980s, state developmentalism has mostly successfully assumed the twin challenges of economic and social progress. In the last two decades of the century, Latin American states adopted the policies of the Washington Consensus, which emphasized the importance of business in the framework of globalization and benefited the affluent few. However, an unambiguous shift in direction has been taking place in Latin America since the 1997 economic crisis. This article suggests that a new developmental welfare state model seems to be in the making. How will it evolve over the wider space of an increasingly integrated Latin America?     

Occupational Risks in Latin America

Protection against employment accidents and occupational diseases, also known as occupational risks, has a long history in Latin America. There have been very few studies of this branch of social security, despite the fact that as a vehicle of social protection it is of the greatest importance for any society. In view of its implications in terms of improved worker protection and greater productivity in the economy, this form of insurance deserves greater attention. This article attempts to give an overview of the evolution of occupational risk insurance in Latin America, as well as its current problems and status. It discusses specific aspects of selected schemes, with concluding observations on the challenges now faced by such schemes in the region.     

Social Policy and Inequality in Latin America: A Review of Recent Trends

Most Latin American countries have extensive social policies which absorb high levels of state spending. Despite this, Latin America continues to suffer from high levels of inequality in terms of income and access to basic services. This article explores this apparent paradox. It focuses on three aspects of social policy in the region: patterns of resource allocation, the distribution of welfare entitlements and differing capacities to take advantage of these entitlements. It applies this framework to study the distributional effects of education, health and social security policies, paying particular attention to recent changes and developments. The article shows that these three factors combine in various ways to benefit higher-income groups and exclude the poor. Recent changes have marginally improved provision for low-income groups, but the fundamentally inegalitarian nature of social policy in the region remains largely unchanged and unchallenged.     

Social welfare and social work: the meaning of poverty programs in Latin America

During the last decade, the concern about poverty has turned into a key issue in the government discourse, and participatory poverty programs have multiplied all over Latin America. Nevertheless, poverty and social unrest keep growing. The objective of this article is to explain this apparent paradox. First there is an analysis of the relationship between structural adjustment, the growth of poverty, and the reorientation of broad social policy away from social rights towards selective and targeted poor relief. In order to illustrate the content and operation of a typical Latin American poverty program, the Mexican National Solidarity Program is examined. The initial question posed is whether this program alleviates poverty and grants a social minimum for the poor in view of the magnitude of poverty, the quantity of resources and their allocation. Next the participatory approach of the program is analyzed in relation to the empowerment of poor groups and communities. Finally, there is a reflection on the place of social work in this program and how the role of the social worker has been transformed.     

Social Policy for Poverty Reduction in Lower-income Countries in Latin America: Lessons and Challenges

This article provides a comparative study of income transfer programmes recently introduced in lower-income countries in Central and South America, aimed at raising human development and consumption among groups in extreme poverty. The successful introduction of these programmes is challenging in these countries due to their high incidence of poverty, low delivery capacity and poor service infrastructure. The article discusses the design, implementation and impact of these programmes, as well as their institutionalization and dynamics. It concludes that these programmes can be effective in reducing persistent intergenerational poverty, but that their sustainability is undermined by weak institutionalization.     

Assessing Pension System Reforms in Latin America

During the 1980s and 1990s sweeping structural changes were made to social security systems in a number of Latin American countries. This paper aims to assess the impact of those reforms, showing their possible limitations, risks and internal malfunctions. The impact on the following will be considered: (a) coverage; (b) risks and uncertainty; (c) redistributive aspects; (d) savings; and (e) the administration and management costs of the new system.     

The gender gap in pensions in Latin America

Lower female lifetime labour market participation rates, greater interruptions during their working lives, and wage gaps contribute to create gender gaps in pensions at the time of retirement. The design of social security systems may reinforce or attenuate these gaps. This article provides new evidence on gender gaps in access to pensions and in pension income in four Southern Cone countries in Latin America and analyses their evolution between 2000 and 2013, showing significant improvements in both gaps, with differential patterns by countries. The decrease in the gender gap in pension income has been particularly significant in Argentina and Brazil. In both cases, the largest increases in pension values during the period correspond to the lowest income percentiles, where women are overrepresented. The application of redistributive policies in these countries, aimed at reducing poverty and inequality but not necessarily focused on gender equity, has had positive and probably unintended consequences in terms of reduction in gender gaps in pensions.     

Social Protection and the Labour Market in Latin America: What can be Learned from Household Surveys?

Most social protection is provided through contribution-based programmes, which means that protection is usually linked to employment conditions in the formal economy. This article describes the levels, trends and structure of social protection for workers in Latin America, highlighting the relationship between protection and employment conditions. The study is based on a selection of household surveys carried out in various countries in the region: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. It emphasizes the usefulness of household surveys as sources of information for representative studies on social protection and employment, in spite of the problems of coverage and comparability that they raise.     

拉美左翼崛起现象探析

拉美左翼是世界社会主义运动的一个重要组成部分。20世纪90年代后期以来,拉美左派顾时而变,及时调整斗争策略,以新的姿态重新出现在拉美政治舞台上。这一现象表明了拉美政治力量的新变化,它将对拉美地区的政治格局产生重要影响。     

拉丁美洲的经济改革与产业结构调整

拉美的经济改革不可避免地带来了产业的结构调整。对产业和企业来说 ,经济改革实际上是优胜劣汰的过程 ,是技术优势和竞争优势取胜的过程。 80年代后期以来 ,拉美不同产业的市场份额发生了变化 ,以自然资源为基础的产业和客户工业发展较迅速。经济的结构性改革、技术的提高和制度的变革三者的结合 ,提高了拉美一些产业的劳动生产率 ,落后企业的倒闭 ,新的技术先进的企业进入市场 ,在此过程中实现了一些产业在技术和制度上的过渡。拉美一些产业和企业虽然正在较高技术水平的基础上发展 ,但劳动生产率的提高却主要依靠了进口技术和设备 ,产品的附加值却非常之低。此外 ,拉美国家为出口服务的产业结构对经济增长也存在着隐患。在这种发展模式中 ,跨国公司正在获得最大利益 ,而拉美的人民却较少从中获益 ,拉美地区的贫富差距也将难以因经济改革和技术提高有所改善。     

Expanding economic protection to the elderly in Latin America

This article addresses the reforms introduced in Latin American pension systems that had the aim of increasing coverage beyond formal‐sector workers. For this purpose, fourteen representative regional experiences are analysed using a taxonomy based on features of the cases examined in terms of design, implementation and results. The findings show that, although the reforms share the goal of expanding coverage, there are significant differences deriving from the context in which they were originally designed, their goals, and the capacity available to implement them. The results are not homogeneous, and it is possible to identify some aspects in which policy decisions can lead to better or worse results.