Social Security and Retirement in Latin America: relation to youth unemployment and health trends

There is widespread concern about population aging affects macroeconomic variables and public sector fiscal balance, especially in Latin America. A second related issue is how the public social security system affects retirement behavior of older workers. The literature on the determinants of male retirement in developed countries is extensive. However, little is known about possible impacts of public welfare, especially in countries with large public systems of this relationship. The main explanation for early retirement in developed countries is the existence of generous pension programs and increased income and wealth of workers. However, there are several criticisms of the results presented for two main reasons: first, that the output of the elderly labor market creates jobs for younger workers and, secondly, that older workers leave the force work due to health issues. The aim of this paper is to investigate these two hypotheses for Latin America over the last two decades. The region is an interesting and important study because it has been undergoing a period of major demographic changes that have major impacts on the economy and the public pension system, and is also observing a change in the disease profile of the population that enable proper investigation of the problem.