The Pension Challenge

Book excerpt: This book, the first in a new series produced by the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School in collaboration with Oxford University Press, explores ways to enhance retirement security in a volatile financial environment.Mitchell and Smetters begin by assessing the myriad retirement risks confronting employees, retirees, employers, and governments, and it shows how stakeholders can work to reinvent pensions that perform well in a competitive global setting. Contributors then indicate how pension systems can be better designed to help protect against these risks.Of special interest is a discussion of new financial products and structures to meet and manage challenges to old-age security. Examples considered include pension investment guarantees and hedges, adapting catastrophe bonds to the pension context, and key regulatory structures and portfolio requirements designed to protect unwary or unwitting pension participants. The contributors draw important lessons for a wide range of countries, drawing from both developed and developing marketexperiences.Contributors include world-famous finance experts and risk management faculty, development economists, pension regulators, and pension consultants.