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Australia's retirement income system has two distinctive features: a means-tested public pension, and a policy mandating private retirement saving. These programs have gained increasing international attention as countries address the challenges posed by population aging. In this paper the institutional features of the retirement income system in Australia are outlined and contrasted to the Canadian retirement income system, with an emphasis on private incentives to save. The savings behaviour of current Australian retirees is examined, and the expectations of future retirees considered. Lessons from the Australian experience are drawn, which may inform Canada and other countries as they reform their retirement income system.

Australia's retirement income system has two distinctive features: a means-tested public pension, and a policy mandating private retirement saving. These programs have gained increasing international attention as countries address the challenges posed by population aging. In this paper the institutional features of the retirement income system in Australia are outlined and contrasted to the Canadian retirement income system, with an emphasis on private incentives to save. The savings behaviour of current Australian retirees is examined, and the expectations of future retirees considered. Lessons from the Australian experience are drawn, which may inform Canada and other countries as they reform their retirement income system.

Are tax incentives the best way to encourage people to save for retirement? This publication assesses whether countries can improve the design of financial incentives to promote savings for retirement. After describing how different countries design financial incentives to promote savings for retirement in funded pensions, the study calculates the overall tax advantage that individuals may benefit from as a result of those incentives when saving for retirement. It then examines the fiscal cost of those incentives and their effectiveness in increasing retirement savings, and looks into alternative approaches to designing financial incentives. The study ends with policy guidelines on how to improve the design of financial incentives to promote savings for retirement, highlighting that depending on the policy objective certain designs of tax incentives or non-tax incentives may be more appropriate.

The aim of this article is to point at main implications stemming from behavioural economics for retirement savings. The author presents main models of choice relevant to the intertemporal choice developed by economical psychologists (prospect theory, hyperbolic discount function, system of mental accounts). These models provide a basis for a comparison of behavioural models of choice with fundamental assumptions of the rational representative agent, essential for consumption smoothing models. There is room for doubt whether real individuals are rational, patient and able enough to maintain self-control in order to fulfil the requirements of consumption smoothing models. This comparison allows the author to derive some strict implications for the governmental policy directed to increase retirement savings such as social pensions or optional retirement savings programs which can be perceived as self-commitment devices helpful as devices for maintaining people's self-control.