This book is unique as it presents an academic and a practical aspect on managing pension funds to clarify the global debate on social security. The authors establish the basic choices in designating any system to help policy makers develop the system that achieves their many objectives. They examine reforms in Latin America to highlight flaws and to estimate the true cost of these reforms and factors affecting these costs. The authors then discuss how the United States and Spain can implement robust systems incorporating many of the ideal features. The success of reforms depends on financial innovation to mitigate key risks and some innovations are discussed, which also demonstrates how pension reform choices affect the achievement of retirement objectives. Finally, the authors examine some proposed hybrid options to show how the beneficial features of these hybrids can be captured through good design in a single fund.

佛朗哥·莫迪利亞尼（Franco Modigliani）教授曾是麻省理工學院經濟學和金融學教授，並因其在金融市場功能和傢庭儲蓄行為分析的開創性工作而榮膺1985年諾貝爾經濟學奬。他的著作大多與社會保障、資本市場、貨幣供給、歐元和失業有關。主要著作有《穩定政策之爭論》（The Debate over Stabilization Policy）和自傳《經濟學傢的探險》（Adventures of an Economist）。他的學術論文被編為五捲，於1980年至1989年齣版。