NBER-Kiel Institute Conference

Coping with the Pension Crisis -- Where Does Europe Stand?

Berlin, 20-21 March 2000

OECD Statistical and Analytical Information on Ageing

In recent years the OECD has published a wide range of analyses examining the demographic forces, and likely economic and social impacts of ageing societies and evaluated the policy options and responses. The following tables and figures are largely taken from these studies. They are grouped around four broad themes: demographic, labour market, social systems and the institutional features of pension systems. While not presented here, the OECD has also examined financial market issues connected with changing trends in the way individuals and societies provide for retirement.

The demographic data in this information pack is sourced from the United Nations 1998 revision of world population prospects, which was released in 1999. For EU countries they differ from those compiled by Eurostat, due in part to different assumptions concerning fertility and net immigration rates. As a consequence, derived measures such as the dependency ratio can be very different depending on the source used for demographic data, especially as the projection period is extended.

The data on social spending and the labour market are partly compiled from the OECD labour force statistics and social spending databases and partly from analytical studies. The cut-off date for information varies depending on the source, but in most cases it is 1997. Special care, in particular, needs to be taken when using the information contained in the tables and figures summarising the institutional features of pension systems. These data were collected in 1997 and verified in 1998 and therefore characterise the situation as it was three years ago. For the most part, the tables remain broadly up to date. But there are exceptions. For example, in Italy measures (Prodi agreement) were taken in late 1997 with effect in 1998 to phase in more rapidly the increase in the early retirement age, to bring forward the harmonisation of public and private pension regimes and to increase pension contributions paid by the self employed. Furthermore, since 1997 10 other OECD countries, including Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom have implemented, or are in the process of implementing, reforms that are also expected to increase the amount of time spent in employment and reduce the amount of time spent in retirement. And another six countries, including Korea and the Netherlands are actively considering such polices. However, the impact and specific nature of measures adopted since 1997 vary widely. Some countries have opted to increase the official retirement age, others to effectively lower the level of benefit if taken early and others to tighten the eligibility criteria.

Data posted at www.nber.org/pensioncrisis