Paper short abstract:

Political Economy of Pension Reforms in Nigeria: evaluating the institutional trajectory and roles of international policy advisors.

Paper long abstract:

Abstract.

In the context of the prevailing hegemonic "market-driven" neo-liberal dynamics, pension systems generally remain one of the critical dimensions of public policy reforms, both in the developed and developing countries. While in the 1990s many of the developed countries such as Germany, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Australia, and Italy have introduced and implemented many pension reforms, some transition and developing countries in Latin America and Africa have also embarked upon the process, to "radically" transform their public pension systems. Based on the concept of "individual capitalization", new pension reforms in developing countries represent a response to "market-driven" neo-liberal process. Even in a context of "fiscal contraction" and "states' retrenchment" of public policy provisioning, and demographic ageing, income guarantee and security, through pension system, for the workers and pensioners, remain an important hall-mark of public policy direction for governments in developing countries. This paper takes this further to evaluate the historical and institutional trajectory of pension reforms in Nigeria; with empirical and critical evaluations of "technical" and "ideological" assumptions that guide the "ideational processes". The paper evaluates the roles of international policy advisors in "policy diffusion", to developing countries, on pension policy. The implication of "policy-transfer" on pension reforms in Nigeria, is examined.

Keywords: Pension reforms, policy-diffusion, international policy advisors, ideological assumptions