Li Dongfeng
Social insurance model, fund accumulation model, universal security model and social assistance model are the main models of pension system in all countries of the world.
The social insurance model is the pension system adopted by most countries, that is, the pay-as-you-go system, that is, the working generation supports the retired generation, and the contributions of the working generation are directly used to pay the pensions of current retirees. This system is beneficial to low-income people, embodies the basic value of social security to help the weak, and embodies social equity. At the same time, because the fund implements the pay-as-you-go system, it will not lose retirement benefits because of the impact of economic fluctuations on fund accumulation. However, due to the aging population, it has brought more and more burdens to the government and increased its financial burden. In particular, the social insurance system with high treatment level and single level has caused heavier responsibilities and burdens to the government.
Fund accumulation mode is a personal pension savings system enforced by the state. Through the establishment of personal accounts, all the contributions of employers and employees are deposited into personal accounts, and the level of retirement benefits depends on the accumulation of funds in the accounts, so investment can be made. This model effectively solves the pension payment crisis brought by the aging population and reduces the burden on the government. But also provides a large amount of long-term construction funds for economic construction. The representative of this model is Singapore's central provident fund system and Chile's privately managed pension system. However, this model lacks mutual assistance, which is not conducive to low-income people and does not reflect social equity.
The national security model and social assistance model mainly rely on state finance, and employers and employees do not pay fees. These two models are generally used as auxiliary systems of the old-age insurance system.
Combining the pay-as-you-go system with the fund accumulation system, encouraging voluntary occupational annuity plans and personal pension savings, and establishing a multi-level pension insurance system are the direction of pension system reform in all countries in the world.
Because the pay-as-you-go system can't solve the payment crisis caused by the aging problem, it increases the burden on the government and enterprises, and causes individuals to rely on the country. Since 1980s, many countries have reformed the pay-as-you-go system.
First, represented by Chile, the pay-as-you-go system was completely transferred to the fund accumulation system. Individuals and employers pay into personal accounts, and then individuals choose private companies for fund management and investment. After the success of the Chilean model, South American countries and former Eastern European countries followed suit, or completely implemented fund accumulation, or pay-as-you-go and fund accumulation in parallel.
The second is to introduce a nominal personal account in the pay-as-you-go system, represented by Sweden. In this model, the personal account is empty, its function is only a means to calculate and pay benefits, and its financing method is still pay-as-you-go. The role of this model is to encourage employees to work hard and extend their retirement years. In addition, considering the huge transition cost from pay-as-you-go to fund accumulation, the government has to adopt this transition mode of temporarily not repaying historical debts.
Third, encourage occupational annuity plans and personal pension savings plans to reduce the replacement rate of pay-as-you-go system. While retaining the pay-as-you-go system, most countries encourage employers to organize occupational annuity plans for their employees through taxation. At the same time, reduce the replacement rate of basic pension. At present, 1/3 employees in oecd countries have participated in the occupational annuity plan; In most countries, the pension replacement rate is below 40%, and occupational annuity has become the main part of pension income.
It is a common practice all over the world to invest pension in the capital market, implement market-oriented operation and realize the preservation and appreciation.
From the pay-as-you-go system to the fund accumulation system, pension funds will generate huge accumulation and face enormous pressure of maintaining and increasing value. The common practice in the world is to put pension into the capital market, on the one hand, to improve the return on investment on the basis of fully diversifying risks, on the other hand, to provide long-term stable funds for the capital market and serve the national economic construction. For example, the pension assets in the United States have reached 12.7 trillion in 1999, and half of mutual funds are pensions. Pension is the largest institutional investor in American capital market. Chile's pension assets accounted for only 0.84% of gdp in 198 1 year, and by the end of 1999, pension assets accounted for 53.3% of gdp.
Due to the particularity of pension, countries put the safety of pension investment in the first place, and implement stricter control compared with other investment funds, and have strict restrictions on the scope and proportion of investment. According to the maturity of the capital market, investment restrictions should be adjusted accordingly. In the case of immature capital market, we should stipulate a higher proportion of fixed income investment and limit the proportion of high-risk investment in stocks. With the maturity of the capital market, the scope of investment and the proportion of high-risk investment will gradually expand.
Adhering to the basic principle of unified accounting, encouraging the development of enterprise annuities and establishing a multi-level pension insurance system are the direction of China's pension insurance system reform, and the key to ensure the success of the reform is to enter the capital market and realize the preservation and appreciation of pensions.
In the 1990s, China established the reform idea of "low level, wide coverage, multi-level, shared responsibility and unified account" in the reform of endowment insurance, and implemented the mode of combining social pooling with individual account. 200 1 The basic old-age insurance pilot established individual accounts in Liaoning Province, and the overall funds and individual account funds were managed separately to realize the real accumulation of individual accounts. At the same time, relevant departments are studying and formulating a series of institutional measures to promote the vigorous development of enterprise annuity.
With the promulgation of relevant laws and regulations, the standardization of pension management, the maturity of capital market and the perfection of supervision means of government supervision departments, the investment and operation of pension funds have also been put on the agenda.
In the process of China's pension reform, only by summing up the experience and lessons of foreign pension development, analyzing the expected development trend, and always based on the special background of China's legal environment, institutional environment, economic environment, market environment, basic national strength and comprehensive quality of enterprises and individuals, can we really find a reform road suitable for China's pension development.