This article reviews two rounds of pension reforms in ten Latin American countries to determine whether they are moving away from individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Although the idea is provocative, we conclude that the notion of "going public" alone is insufficient to characterize the new politics of old-age pension reform.As opposed to the politics of enactment of IRAs of the late twentieth century, pension reform in Latin America in recent years has combined significant comeback of public components in old-age income support with improvement of IRAs. Clearly, the policy prescriptions that were most influential during the first round of reforms in Latin America have been re-evaluated. The World Bank and other organizations that promoted IRAs have recognized that pension reform should pay more attention to poverty reduction, coverage and equity, and to protect participants from market risks. The experience and challenges faced by countries that introduced IRAs, the changes in policies by international financing institutions, and the recent financial volatility and heavy losses experienced in financial markets may have tempered the enthusiasm of other countries from applying the same type of reforms. Scholars and policymakers around the globe could benefit from looking closely at these changes in pension policy.

This article reviews two rounds of pension reforms in ten Latin American countries to determine whether they are moving away from individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Although the idea is provocative, we conclude that the notion of "going public" alone is insufficient to characterize the new politics of old-age pension reform.As opposed to the politics of enactment of IRAs of the late twentieth century, pension reform in Latin America in recent years has combined significant comeback of public components in old-age income support with improvement of IRAs. Clearly, the policy prescriptions that were most influential during the first round of reforms in Latin America have been re-evaluated. The World Bank and other organizations that promoted IRAs have recognized that pension reform should pay more attention to poverty reduction, coverage and equity, and to protect participants from market risks. The experience and challenges faced by countries that introduced IRAs, the changes in policies by international financing institutions, and the recent financial volatility and heavy losses experienced in financial markets may have tempered the enthusiasm of other countries from applying the same type of reforms. Scholars and policymakers around the globe could benefit from looking closely at these changes in pension policy.

No abstract

El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar la educación adquirida por una persona y los factores determinantes de dicho resultado. Con estos propósitos, la educación es concebida como un proceso secuencial de decisiones. Las categorías educativas resultantes de dicho proceso son primaria incompleta, primaria completa, secundaria incompleta, secundaria completa y terciaria. Sobre la base de datos para el año 1997, provenientes de la Encuesta de Desarrollo Social, se aplica un modelo logit secuencial construido a partir de cuatro modelos logit condicionales utilizados para estimar, respectivamente, la probabilidad de completar la escuela primaria, de asistir a la escuela secundaria, de completar la secundaria y de asistir al nivel terciario. Los resultados de estas estimaciones indican que las características socioeconómicas son determinantes significativos de la educación adquirida por una persona y tienen importantes efectos sobre las probabilidades de satisfacer los distintos niveles educativos.

No abstract