Company pension funds can make important contributions to retirement income and to capital market development. But they need to be regulated and supervised to avoid fraud; protect the interests of workers, and minimize restrictions on labor mobility.

" "Draconian" regulations have created distortions in asset management, limited opportunities for diversification, and, as a consequence have hampered, the performance of pension funds." This volume shows that the return to retirement assets, expected replacement rates, and, hence, the net welfare gain from pension reform is lower under a draconian regulatory framework than under a more liberal pension fund investment regime. Important policy conclusions of the paper are that existing regulatory regimes should be liberalized as soon as possible to allow pension fund investments in a wider array of financial instruments and that regulations should require evaluation of pension fund performance against market benchmarks as opposed to exclusive focus on comparisons with industry averages. The paper also suggests a review of the current structure of the private pension fund industry in Latin America and an evaluation against alternatives in the light of actual performance experience.

The seventh edition of this annual report reviews the long-term prospects for developing countries in light of changes in the global environment and provides a detailed discussion of selected aspects of the global integration process in those countries. The first chapter evaluates prospects for the major elements of the external environment affecting developing countries and the medium-to-long-term outlook for developing countries themselves. The report forecasts that the external environment for developing countries remains broadly favorable. Among the main policy challenges faced by these countries is their ability to adapt to long-run shifts in market opportunities and heightened competitive pressures brought on by global trade liberalization--now increasingly focused on liberalization of trade in services--rising global production, and other forms of global integration. The chapter considers the implications for the world economy of rapid growth and integration in large developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil in the period to 2020. The second chapter looks at the move toward greater globalization of production, broadly defined as cross-border production by multinational enterprises and their networks of affiliates, subcontractors, and other partners. Within this context, the chapter addresses the significance of global production in world output in main groups of countries and economic sectors; factors driving the trend toward global production, including heightened competition, worldwide policy liberalization, and rapid technological progress; the benefits that developing countries can derive from global production, such as new technologies and improved efficiency practices; and the issues for policymakers seeking to enhance participation in global production and maximize its benefits for host countries.

This book, first published in 1997, offers up-to-date research about publicly regulated pensions for old age.

The studies in this two-volume work shed new light on the range and viability of the emerging corporate governance institutions in the transitional economies of Central Europe. Regional specialists and experts on corporate governance in advanced economies examine the emerging forms of ownership and complementary monitoring institutions in leading transition companies.

This books explores the international aspects of pension reform, private savings and volatile capital markets and clarifies how they relate to each other.