Costs and Benefits of Collective Pension Systems [Paperback]

Recommended by Nobel Laureate Robert C. Merton, this book offers the world a first-hand opportunity to learn why the Dutch pension system is so often praised and how it operates. The book also discusses aspects of the system that are less favorable, such as implicit value transfers from younger to older generations that limit mobility of labor. Throughout the discussions, the authors provide quantitative evidence to support their assertions.

In January 2006, the Dutch Association of Industry-wide Pension Funds (VB) told us about their plan to prepare a book on solidarity in collective pension systems. We were intrigued by this topic, both because of our - terest in the pension sector and because of the connection with solidarity in a cost-benefit approach. After some discussions with VB director Peter Borgdorff, we decided to start a project with leading scholars and prac- tioners, which was to result in a book. We hoped that the researchers could investigate the extent of value transfers within collective pension funds, so that quantitative indications of this institutionalized solidarity would - come publicly available. While the book was in progress, the discussion on solidarity and mandatory pension systems became very topical, and so 1 were the results of the analyses. When the book was released in Dutch , the chapter on costs differentials between pension funds and insurance companies also drew much attention. In the early months of 2007, the political and professional debates c- tinued, with increasing attention from pension experts from abroad. This made us decide to try and arrange a translated version of the book. We were happy to find Springer Verlag, and collaborate with their enthusi- tic publisher Dr. Niels Peter Thomas. We are also grateful to the Pension Science Trust (Stichting Pensioenwetenschap) for subsidizing the trans- tion by Language Lab, and to the earlier mentioned VB for their generous collaboration in getting the internal£È