Fuzzy Boundaries of Government and Market1 : Insights into Governance Regime of Pension System in East and Southeast Asia

YiFan Yang, WeiMin Zhou, and SiHan Che
Southwest Jiaotong University Chengdu,
​People’s Republic of China

This paper focuses on boundaries of government and market in governance regime of pension systems in East and Southeast Asia. Our findings show that boundaries of government and market in East and Southeast Asian countries are fuzzy, thus, their roles are integrated. Employing the concepts of “regime”, “system”, and “policy” as the framework, this paper conducts a comparative study on the historical development and current public pension systems among Asian countries, including South Korea (hereafter simply “Korea”), Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, China, and Vietnam, so as to find out their core components, functions, and governance regimes, especially the roles exerted by government and market. Overall, many East Asian countries are in a similar developmental state, but their pension system reforms have brought changes in “regime,” “system,” and “policy” in their pension systems. This has changed the roles exerted by government and market. In such an unstable state, the boundaries of government and market which cannot be determined are fuzzy. To achieve the most efficient governance structures for pension system means that both the government and market in Asian countries should bear the responsibility of caring for the elderly, and then play their particular roles in their own fields with the utmost efficiency.