WHO GETS WHAT?

PRINCIPLES AND DISTRIBUTIVE IMPACTS OF THE ARGENTINE PENSION SYSTEM

Abstract

This article discusses the principles and distributive impacts of the Argentine pension system. On the one hand, it presents the evolution of pension policy from its origins, including two recent structural reforms (privatization in 1993-4, and its reversal in 2008), and the way in which each of them defined the distributive principles of the system. On the other hand, the paper studies the most recent measures that have been loosening the actual distribution of benefits from the traditional Bismarckian model. These and other measures have jointly defined the distribution of benefits and coverage in the current Argentine pension system, which is presented at the end of the paper.