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Annuities in SwitzerlandSwitzerland's pension system has
 attracted considerable attention, mainly due to its reliance
 on a three-pillar structure. A relatively small
 pay-as-you-go system (first pillar) is complemented by a
 mandatory, employer-based, fully funded occupational pension
 scheme (second pillar). The main goal of this paper is to
 provide a detailed description and analysis of the Swiss
 pension system. Particular emphasis is placed on the second
 pillar and its role in the provision of old age benefits
 within the Swiss social security system. The paper shows,
 for example, that a typical individual with an uninterrupted
 career can expect a net (after-tax) replacement rate of at
 least 70 percent. Occupational pension plans are highly
 regulated. Minimum interest rate requirements and minimum
 conversion rates (at which the accumulated retirement
 balances are transformed into annuity streams) introduce
 many elements of defined benefit plans into notionally
 defined contribution schemes. The resulting money's
 worth ratios are very high (with the exception of single
 males). Switzerland also has a high annuitization rate by
 international standards (approximately 80 percent). However,
 due to high fragmentation of the scheme and non-uniform
 accounting practices, some aspects of the system are not
 very transparent. The paper sheds light on the financial
 health of the pension system and the evolution of the
 regulatory framework in the past two decades.
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The Labor Supply and Retirement Behavior of China’s Older Workers and Elderly in Comparative PerspectiveThis paper highlights the employment
 patterns of China's over-45 population and, for
 perspective, places them in the context of work and
 retirement patterns in Indonesia, Korea, the United States,
 and the United Kingdom. As is common in many developing
 countries, China can be characterized as having two
 retirement systems: a formal system, under which urban
 employees receive generous pensions and face mandatory
 retirement by age 60, and an informal system, under which
 rural residents and individuals in the informal sector rely
 on family support in old age and have much longer working
 lives. Gender differences in age of exit from work are shown
 to be much greater in urban China than in rural areas, and
 also greater than observed in Korea and Indonesia.
 Descriptive evidence is presented suggesting that pension
 eligible workers are far more likely to cease productive
 activity at a relatively young age. A strong relationship
 between health status and labor supply in rural areas is
 observed, indicating the potential role that improvements in
 access to health care may play in extending working lives
 and also providing some basis for a common perception that
 older rural residents tend to work as long as they are
 physically capable. The paper concludes with a discussion of
 measures that may facilitate longer working lives as
 China's population ages.
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The Market for Retirement Products in SwedenFar-reaching changes in the regulation
 of financial markets and the organization of public pensions
 in the 1980s and 1990s transformed the landscape for
 retirement products in Sweden. First, banking and insurance
 were extensively deregulated in the 1980s, while the
 securities markets experienced major expansion. Insurance
 received a large boost from the authorization of unit-linked
 products in the early 1990s. Second, the public pension
 system was reformed. Survivor benefits for widows were
 eliminated from the public pillar in the late 1980s, leading
 to a large increase in demand for term life insurance. The
 old defined benefit public pension system was replaced by a
 notional or nonfinancial defined contribution (NDC) scheme,
 while a funded defined contribution (FDC) component was also
 created in the public pillar. The four occupational pension
 funds that cover the majority of Swedish workers were also
 converted into FDC schemes. This paper reviews the
 implications of these changes for the Swedish annuity
 market. It discusses the regulation of payout options in
 Sweden, highlighting the compulsory use of life annuities in
 the public pillar and the preference for term annuities in
 the occupational funds. It examines the performance of
 providers of retirement products, including the PPM, and
 reviews the increasing focus on risk-based regulation and
 supervision. The paper also emphasizes Sweden's success
 in moving in the direction of increased funding and
 privatization of old age insurance, while maintaining its
 basic character as a highly developed welfare state.