Topic of thesis: The politics of pension reforms between state and market in Latin America
Abstract: In the last 3 decades the pension panorama has dramatically changed worldwide. Between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s neoliberal reforms led to remarkable "path-shifts" and pension privatization in more than 30 countries around the globe. Lately, however, most of these countries reversed the privatization trend opting for a radical renationalization of their pension systems. Why did these "path-reversal" reforms occur? Why did they follow diverse trajectories in different countries? What were the drivers of these striking rereforms? What are their implications for the theory of institutional change? In order to answer these questions, the project adopts a Most Similar Systems research Design and compares pension reforms in Chile and Argentina, two countries which maximize variation on the dependent variable. In fact, if at the time of the first critical juncture both countries adopted similar structural reforms towards pension privatization, at the dawn of the second critical juncture they undertook divergent policy trajectories. Chile opted for a “privatization deepening” reform and extended the role of private pillars, whereas Argentina shut down the private pillar and re-nationalized the entire pension systems, giving rise to a striking “path reversal”. Mainly through qualitative and comparative analysis the research project aims at i) understanding the reform content in the two countries by ii) identifying the forces and actors which shaped divergent policy trajectories in the last decade; also, iii) it elaborates on the main theoretical implications of research findings.
Research interests: Pensions; Welfare; Social exclusion;
Graduated from: Università degli Studi di Milano
Degrees obtained: MA in International Sciences and European Institutions MSc in Economics and Political Science
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