As part of the 2017 Annual Conference of the Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) held last January 6, in Chicago, USA, the American Economic Association (AEA) organized the session “Pension Reform in Chile.”

The session featured three panels. The MIT academic and Nobel Laureate in Economics, Peter Diamond, and Nicholas Barr, a member of the Bravo Commission (created in 2014 by President Bachelet), delivered their presentations in the first panel. They described the Chilean pension system and the changes resulting from the 2008 reform, addressing and analyzing the issues and matters pending from the last reform. The reports of both authors prepared for this occasion can be seen here.

The session then continued with the presentation of the Chairman of the Commission, David Bravo, in the second panel. His presentation “The Chilean pension system: evidence and proposals of a Presidential Advisory Commission,” was based on a summary of the Commission’s work, the main diagnoses of the Chilean pension system and the 58 concrete proposals that received the majority support of the Board, in addition to the three broad global alternatives (proposals A, B and C) on how to improve the country’s pensions. The paper concludes by analyzing the future prospects of the discussion currently taking place in Chile. Nicholas Barr also addressed this issue in his presentation.

Finally, the session ended with the third panel, which included presentations by another three experts on the advantages of defined contribution pension plans providing life annuities that cover the systematic longevity risk (individual) at a relatively low price (you can see a paper on the topic of his research here). These experts were: Olivia Mitchell (also a member of the Bravo Commission); Vanya Horneff, of Goethe University, Frankfurt; and Raimond Maurer, of Gothe University. The Economist of the University of Maryland and former member of the Commission, Sergio Urzua, and the MIT Economist, James Poterba, also participated as commentators in this final panel.