Pensions After Pension Reforms: A Comparative Analysis of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia

The pension systems of the post-Soviet space, which had in the background one of the best in the world USSR PAYG (pay-as-you-go) basis, currently continue to evolve and improve. Some of the countries have made major pension changes, while others start their first reforms. How implemented various pension reforms impact on the retirement benefits and wealth of pensioners: pensions, their indexation, pension ages, and life expectancy?

In this article we consider the results of pension reforms on the example of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, which entered three different pension models: PAYG, fully-funded, and mixed, respectively. We found that PAYG pension system is more suitable and beneficial now for pensioners. However, the advantages of other pension models may appear in the future due to demographic and economic reasons.