The past few decades have witnessed a global move towards private provision for retirement through individual defined contribution pensions at the expense of publicly provided and employer-sponsored defined benefit pensions. As a consequence, workers and retirees are becoming increasingly exposed to uncertainties in financial, labour and economic markets. The contributors to this book analyse the implications for retirement income policy, workers and retirees in view of the current climate of heightened exposure to scary markets.The implications of a broad range of scary market scenarios are presented, and novel solutions prescribed. Retirement incomes across a number of countries including the US, the UK, Japan and Australia are explored, and uncertainties examined include: extreme stock price volatility; discontinuous labour market participation; and regulatory failure and macroeconomic instability. Concluding with the observation that regulatory reforms could be almost as scary as the underlying macroeconomic conditions, this book will prove a fascinating read for scholars, researchers, practitioners and policymakers with an interest in pensions and pension policy, financial economics and public sector economics.

The rapid aging of the world's populations has triggered an anxious response in many governments that stresses the need to set up or radically overhaul their mandatory pension policies. This wideranging analysis compares and contrasts the policies and schemes of these countries, using many tables, graphs and charts to summarize important findings.

The rapid aging of the world's populations has triggered an anxious response in many governments that stresses the need to set up or radically overhaul their mandatory pension policies. This wideranging analysis compares and contrasts the policies and schemes of these countries, using many tables, graphs and charts to summarize important findings.