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Matching Contributions for Pensions : A Review of International ExperienceEstablishing robust, equitable, and
 effective social protection is essential to reducing poverty
 and boosting prosperity at all levels of development. The
 demographic transition that has already transformed most
 high-income societies will exert similar and growing
 pressures on others, reinforcing the role of pensions and
 savings for old age as a central pillar of social protection
 systems. One possible solution that has emerged in recent
 years that offers the potential to overcome this challenge
 is the provision of contribution matches to provide an
 immediate and powerful incentive for participation in
 pension saving systems. Originating in several high-income
 settings there are now a number of innovations and
 substantial experience in low-income countries in using this
 design to stimulate coverage and savings. This experience
 now provides a rich opportunity for learning, not just from
 the longer experience of a few high-income countries but
 also the more meaningful South-South learning across
 developing countries.This volume, which reviews
 the experience with matching pension contributions across
 the range of countries that have used the design, makes an
 initial, but critically important investment in this
 learning process. The description and analysis of this
 experience which is the product of partnership and
 collaboration across many public and private institutions
 provide an invaluable early assessment of the design to
 inform policy makers and practitioners as well as serve as a
 model for the kind of cooperation that will be required to
 address this difficult challenge. At the World Bank, we look
 forward to being part of this learning process of how to
 best provide old-age security for all.
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China's Pension System : A VisionChina is at a critical juncture in its
 economic transition. A comprehensive reform of its pension
 and social security systems is an essential element of a
 strategy aimed toward achieving a harmonious society and
 sustainable development. Among policy makers, a widely held
 view is that the approach to pension provision and reform
 efforts piloted over the last 10-15 years is insufficient to
 enable China's economy and population to realize its
 development objectives in the years ahead. This volume
 suggests a national pension system that no longer
 distinguishes along urban and rural locational or hukou
 lines yet takes account of the diverse nature of employment
 relations and capacity of individuals to make contributions.
 This volume is organized as follows: the main text outlines
 this vision, focusing on summarizing the key features of a
 proposed long-term pension system. It first examines key
 trends motivating the need for reform then outlines the
 proposed three-pillar design and the rationale behind the
 design choices. It then moves on to examine financing
 options. The text continues by discussing institutional
 reform issues, and the final section concludes. The six
 appendixes provide additional analytical detail supporting
 the findings in the main text. The pension system design can
 play an important role in supporting or constraining such
 economic and demographic transitions: 1) fragmentation and
 lack of portability of rights hinder labor market efficiency
 and contribute to coverage gaps; 2) multiple schemes for
 salaried workers, civil servants, and, in some areas,
 migrants similarly impact labor markets; 3) legacy costs
 that are largely financed through current pension
 contributions weaken incentives for compliance and accurate
 wage reporting; 4) very limited risk pooling and interurban
 resource transfers limit the insurance function of the urban
 pension system and create spatial disparities in old-age
 income protection; 5) low retirement ages affect incentives
 and benefits and undermine fiscal sustainability; and 6)
 relatively low returns on individual accounts result in
 replacement rates significantly less than anticipated while
 at the macro level, are likely to inhibit wider efforts to
 stimulate higher domestic consumption.
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Stabilization and Fiscal Empowerment : The Twin Challenges Facing India's States, Volume 1. Executive Summary and Main ReportIndia, home to more than one billion
 people, has experienced rapid growth over the past decade,
 averaging about six percent per year between 1992/93 and
 2003/04. The agenda backed in this report is one that
 receives widespread support from both the central and state
 governments in India. The fiscal stress of the late nineties
 gave rise to an intense state-level reform effort. Six years
 on, this report documents the many initiatives undertaken by
 the states to restore fiscal sustainability, and become more
 effective agents of development. It outlines successes,
 lessons learnt, and highlights further challenges, on both
 the expenditure side (chapter two) and the revenue side
 (chapter three). It also looks at the incentive framework
 within which the states operate (chapter four), and asks
 whether there is a feasible reform package that will take
 the states not only out of fiscal crisis, but strengthened
 to meet the development challenges which confront them. This
 chapter provides the context for what follows by outlining
 the role and increasingly divergent performance of the state
 governments (section two), and then in turn, the genesis of
 the fiscal crisis (section three), its developmental impact
 (section four), the reform response of the state and central
 governments (section five), and the reform challenges facing
 the states today (section six). Although associated with an
 increase in public spending, the fiscal crisis weakened the
 developmental and poverty impact of state governments,
 especially in the poorer states; it also called into
 question India's overall fiscal sustainability. This
 report is written to help share the lessons and
 success-stories to date, and to assist states and the
 central government in implementing the national agenda of
 state-level fiscal stabilization and empowerment. Given the
 low levels and the worrying recent trends in both the
 quantity of expenditure in priority expenditure areas, and
 the quality of expenditure across the board, there is an
 urgent need for expenditure restructuring to free up fiscal
 resources and for reforms to improve the quality of
 spending. Focus in this chapter on areas where expenditure
 can be cut rather than where it should be increased is not
 because we think there are no areas of underfunding.
 However, which particular areas should be increased, and by
 how much, will likely vary from state to state, depending on
 initial conditions, and identified priorities. The areas
 where savings can be made have much more in common across
 states, and so are the focuses of this report.