Changes in Pension Schemes in Poland – their causes and consequences

Abstract

Changes that have been introduced in Poland in the 1990s have affected not only economic but also social life. These changes concern, among others, the pension scheme which started in Poland on 1 January 1999. This paper's goal is to present the major principles underlying the pension scheme reform in Poland vis-a-vis systems existing in other central and east European countries. They aim at replacing the relatively inefficient redistribution-based system with a mixed pension scheme, largely based on the capital reserve approach. A comparison of solutions employed in the selected countries will allow us to capture trends characterizing the evolution of the pension schemes.

Keywords:

• Reform
• pension scheme
• Poland
• comparison

Notes

This paper is developed from one presented at the Sixth International Research Symposium on Public Management (IRSPM VI) the University of Edinburgh in May 2002.