The political economy of pensions

New Political Economy

Volumn 1, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 375-391

  Minns, Richard ^a  

^a NONE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

PENSION SCHEME REFORM; PENSIONS PROVISION; POVERTY ALLEVIATION; PRIVATISATION; PRIVATISATION IMPACT; SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM; STATE ROLE; WORLD BANK; WORLD BANK POLICY;

EID: 0030418001     PISSN: 13563467     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13563469608406268     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. The most recent literature on pensions includes E. Philip Davis, Pension Funds: Retirement-Income, Security and Capital Markets; An International Perspective (Clarendon Press, 1995); David Blake, Pension Schemes and Pension Funds in the UK (Clarendon Press, 1995); and P.J. Besseling & R.F. Zeeuw, The Financing of Pensions in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities, Centre for European Policy Studies, Research Report No. 14 (November 1993).
2. The most recent literature on pensions includes E. Philip Davis, Pension Funds: Retirement-Income, Security and Capital Markets; An International Perspective (Clarendon Press, 1995); David Blake, Pension Schemes and Pension Funds in the UK (Clarendon Press, 1995); and P.J. Besseling & R.F. Zeeuw, The Financing of Pensions in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities, Centre for European Policy Studies, Research Report No. 14 (November 1993).
3. The most recent literature on pensions includes E. Philip Davis, Pension Funds: Retirement-Income, Security and Capital Markets; An International Perspective (Clarendon Press, 1995); David Blake, Pension Schemes and Pension Funds in the UK (Clarendon Press, 1995); and P.J. Besseling & R.F. Zeeuw, The Financing of Pensions in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities, Centre for European Policy Studies, Research Report No. 14 (November 1993).
4. The World Bank, Averting the Old Age Crisis: Policies to Protect the Old and Promote Growth (Oxford University Press, 1994).
5. See also, for example, The Federal Trust, The Pension Time Bomb in Europe (Federal Trust, 1995); Martin Wolf, 'Confronting the old age crisis', Financial Times, 19 December 1994, p. 22; John Plender, 'Retirement isn't working', Financial Times, 17 June 1995, Section 3, pp. I, VII; and Michael Prowse, 'Pensions fraud', Financial Times, 13 November 1995, p. 20.
6. See also, for example, The Federal Trust, The Pension Time Bomb in Europe (Federal Trust, 1995); Martin Wolf, 'Confronting the old age crisis', Financial Times, 19 December 1994, p. 22; John Plender, 'Retirement isn't working', Financial Times, 17 June 1995, Section 3, pp. I, VII; and Michael Prowse, 'Pensions fraud', Financial Times, 13 November 1995, p. 20.
7. See also, for example, The Federal Trust, The Pension Time Bomb in Europe (Federal Trust, 1995); Martin Wolf, 'Confronting the old age crisis', Financial Times, 19 December 1994, p. 22; John Plender, 'Retirement isn't working', Financial Times, 17 June 1995, Section 3, pp. I, VII; and Michael Prowse, 'Pensions fraud', Financial Times, 13 November 1995, p. 20.
8. See also, for example, The Federal Trust, The Pension Time Bomb in Europe (Federal Trust, 1995); Martin Wolf, 'Confronting the old age crisis', Financial Times, 19 December 1994, p. 22; John Plender, 'Retirement isn't working', Financial Times, 17 June 1995, Section 3, pp. I, VII; and Michael Prowse, 'Pensions fraud', Financial Times, 13 November 1995, p. 20.
9. Referred to in Davis, Pension Funds, from which I have borrowed some of this summary.
10. st Century (Armonk, 1993).
11. Davis, Pension Funds, p. 150.
12. Annual reports and accounts of Post Office and BT funds, 1990-4. Local authority data extracted from information kindly provided by the WM Company.
13. Mukul G. Asher, 'The role of the Central Provident Fund (CPF) in Singapore', paper presented at the Conference of Major Superannuation Funds, Hobart, Tasmania, March 1995.
14. Ibid., p. 9.
15. PDFM, Pension Fund Indicators (UBS Asset Management, April, 1994).
16. See The Economist, 13 January 1996, pp. 39-40. Of course, there are 'problems' with the CPF scheme as Asher in 'The role of the Central Provident Fund' explains. However, his critique is open to some of the questions which can be asked of the World Bank report. Nevertheless, the CPF raises interesting points about a number of issues which are normally ignored in the literature.
17. Quoted in Imogen Mark, 'Chile's private pension funds; feted abroad, maligned at home', Financial Times, 18 January 1996, p. 6.
18. Gerry Hughes, 'Would Privatising Pensions Increase Savings?', Irish Banking Review (Spring 1996), p. 9.
19. For some of the arguments about the UK system, see Ron Martin & Richard Minns, 'Undermining the Financial Basis of Regions: The Spatial Implications of the UK Pension Fund System', Regional Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2 (1995).
20. A discussion of the nature and implications of control is contained in Richard Minns, Pension Funds and British Capitalism: The Ownership and Control of Shareholdings (Heinemann, 1980), and in Jerry Coakley & Laurence Harris, The City of Capital: London's Role as a Financial Centre (Blackwell, 1983). A recent illustration of this market power was given in the Granada bid for Forte in 1995, when Mercury Asset Management, the largest UK manager of pension funds, held 14 per cent of the Forte shares and was widely viewed as the arbiter of the contest. Will Hutton in The State We're In (Jonathan Cape, 1995) gives the similar example of its role in the contested takeover for LWT by Granada (p. 305).
21. A discussion of the nature and implications of control is contained in Richard Minns, Pension Funds and British Capitalism: The Ownership and Control of Shareholdings (Heinemann, 1980), and in Jerry Coakley & Laurence Harris, The City of Capital: London's Role as a Financial Centre (Blackwell, 1983). A recent illustration of this market power was given in the Granada bid for Forte in 1995, when Mercury Asset Management, the largest UK manager of pension funds, held 14 per cent of the Forte shares and was widely viewed as the arbiter of the contest. Will Hutton in The State We're In (Jonathan Cape, 1995) gives the similar example of its role in the contested takeover for LWT by Granada (p. 305).
22. A discussion of the nature and implications of control is contained in Richard Minns, Pension Funds and British Capitalism: The Ownership and Control of Shareholdings (Heinemann, 1980), and in Jerry Coakley & Laurence Harris, The City of Capital: London's Role as a Financial Centre (Blackwell, 1983). A recent illustration of this market power was given in the Granada bid for Forte in 1995, when Mercury Asset Management, the largest UK manager of pension funds, held 14 per cent of the Forte shares and was widely viewed as the arbiter of the contest. Will Hutton in The State We're In (Jonathan Cape, 1995) gives the similar example of its role in the contested takeover for LWT by Granada (p. 305).
23. International Monetary Fund, International Capital Markets: Part I, Exchange Rate Management and International Capital Flows (IMF, 1993), p. 27.
24. Ibid., p. 22
25. Davis, Pension Funds, p. 288.
26. Ibid., p. 296.
27. Michael Mann, 'As the Twentieth Century Ages', New Left Review, No. 214 (November/December, 1995).
28. London Business School and Corporation of London, The Competitive Position of London's Financial Services, Final Report (1995).
29. Asher, 'The role of the Central Provident Fund'.
30. Roger Beattie & Warren McGillivray provide further discussion of this in 'A Risky Strategy: Reflections on the World Bank Report, "Averting the Old Age Crisis"', International Social Security Review, Vol. 48, No. 3-1 (1995), p. 12.
31. Office of Population and Census Statistics, General Household Survey (HMSO, 1991).
32. John Turner & Daniel Beller (Eds), Trends in Pensions, 1992 (US Department of Labor, 1992), pp. 624-32.
33. Jaime Ruiz-Tagle, 'A pensions system based on individual funded arrangements: the case of Chile', paper presented to the conference on Financial Security in Retirement; The Role for Employees, Congress House, London, November 1995.
34. Beattie & McGillivray, 'A Risky Strategy', p. 2.