Pension reform and universalism: The expansion of old age coverage in Latin America

ARZA, CAMILA

San Juan de Puerto Rico

Congreso; Congreso Anual de la Asociación de Estudios Latinoamericanos (LASA); 2015

LASA

The expansion of pension coverage is an outstanding feature of recent social policy in Latin America. Are Latin American countries moving towards universalistic pension regimes? How do pre-existing pension structures interact and influence the ongoing incorporation of the "outsiders"? This paper looks at policy strategies in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Chile, four countries that have effectively reached high coverage rates of older adults. Looking comparatively at policy design, coverage, benefit levels and the institutionalization of rights, the paper shows wide cross-country variation. Beyond coverage rates, which are high across the four countries, differences prevail in the underlying logic of incorporation to the social protection system, including ideas of deservingness, legacies of contributiveness, residualism and selectiveness. By focusing on "successful" cases the paper aims to make a threefold contribution: (1) to show the variety of policy tools adopted to achieve high coverage across countries; (2) to explain how policy legacies shape the alternative routes chosen by each country for coverage expansion, and (3) to highlight the importance of other elements of policy design and implementation (namely benefit levels and the institutionalization of rights) to understand the nature of social policy transformation and the prospects and constrains for universalism across countries.