Costs and Benefits of Collective Pension Systems

Editors: Dr. Onno Steenbeek, Dr. Fieke van der Lecq



The Dutch are the globe’s thought-leaders in the design and implementation of retirement income systems - this book offers the rest of the world a first-hand opportunity to learn why this is the case

This book is explicitly recommended by Robert C. Merton (Nobel Laureate), Bert Rürup (pension system advisor to the German Federal Government), Brett Hammond (Managing Director TIAA-Creff, a leading pension fund in the USA), and many others

The Dutch pension system is often praised as one of the best in the world: it is efficient, it provides certainty to participants and it preserves cohesion and solidarity among workers and pensioners. This book presents these benefits in detail, supported by quantitative evidence. It also discusses the aspects of the system that are less favourable, however, such as implicit value transfers from younger to older generations that limit mobility of labour. The analyses of both benefits and costs will help pension fund managers, boards of trustees, supervisors, and researchers to understand and to improve pension systems currently in place around the world.

"Steenbeek and Van der Lecq have assembled a rich combination of academic and practitioner chapters on the functions and dysfunctions of a collective pension system. These analyses carefully identify both the risk-sharing and value-transfer elements of the system and offer a powerful methodology for evaluating each and providing a systematic and objective means to evaluate such systems. Whether novice student or seasoned professional of collective pension issues, this work is a "must have" on the subject."
Robert C. Merton
John and Natty McArthur University Professor, Harvard Business School
Chief Science Officer, Trinsum Group

"The Dutch are the globe’s thought-leaders in the design and implementation of retirement income systems. This book offers the rest of the world a first-hand opportunity to learn why this is the case."
Keith Ambachtsheer, University of Toronto
Director, Rotman International Centre for Pension Management

"The Dutch experience, which this book so helpfully lays out, gives the rest of the world a model that is quite distinct from either the disappearing single-employer defined benefit approach and the rising individualistic defined contribution approach.  That experience and this book challenge anyone interested in policies for lifetime financial security to consider systemic progress rather than ad hoc patches."
Brett Hammond
Senior Managing Director & Chief Investment Strategist TIAA-CREF Asset Management

"The Dutch think long and hard before adopting changes to their well-designed pension system. By contrast, the emergence of the individualistic 401(k) as the primary retirement income vehicle in the United States was clearly haphazard. Policymakers interested in improving our ‘accidental’ pension system have much to learn from this volume, which shows the benefits of a more considered and collective approach."
Alicia Munnell, Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Sciences, Boston College Director, Center for Retirement Research, Carroll School of Management

"The reorganisation of pension systems is one of the great challenges we are facing today. This impressive collection of studies offers the specialist reader a comprehensive overview of the current debate."
Bert Rürup, Darmstadt University of Technology
Chairman, German Council of Economic Experts

Table of contents

Front Matter

Introduction
• Introduction

The concept of solidarity
• Front Matter
• Solidarities in collective pension schemes
• Solidarity: who cares?

Quantifying solidarity
• Front Matter
• Operating costs of pension schemes
• Optimal risk-sharing in private and collective pension contracts
• Intergenerational value transfers within an industry-wide pension fund —a value-based ALM analysis
• Intergenerational solidarity in the uniform contribution and accrual system
• Everyone gains, but some more than others

Mandatory participation
• Front Matter
• Why mandatory retirement saving?
• Mandatory participation for companies

Conclusion
• Front Matter
• Macroeconomic aspects of intergenerational solidarity
• Summary and conclusions

Back Matter