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Previous studies of East Asian welfare regimes focus on similarities between social security schemes. In contrast, this paper explores cross-national variations in public–private pension mixes in six welfare states: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Our research echoes the pension policy analysis of international organisations but takes a step forward with emphasis on the historical and institutional characteristics of the respective pension systems. The analysis identifies three institutional patterns. First, the statist pension system (Taiwan and China) primarily relies on public pensions to provide old-age security, with private pensions playing a rather minor role. Second, in the dualist pension system (Japan and Korea) both public and private pensions work in parallel to ensure retirement income, though a clear security gap exists between workers in the formal and informal economies. Finally, the individualist pension system (Hong Kong and Singapore) is characterised by genuine fully funded individual accounts, emphasising citizens' own responsibilities for ensuring old-age security. These three types of pension systems demonstrate distinct institutional characteristics and policy outcomes, illustrated by the juxtaposition of their institutional structures as well as by the comparison of key indicators collected from government reports and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development statistics. The paper concludes with a theoretical reflection of East Asian pension policies and a diagnosis of the distinct challenges confronted by each of the various pension patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to develop an integrated policy index system using a Surface Measure of Overall Performance ( SMOP) approach to comprehensively evaluate and compare the policy input and social output of the retirement payment system in urban and rural China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. With this, a tool may be developed to help insightfully examine the old-age income policies and appropriately, and perhaps theoretically in the future, categorize the types of retirement provisions or social security policies as a whole in the East and West. The results indicate that, particularly in urban China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, a low level of de-familization and medium and high levels of gender equality are the common features of these five pensions in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Furthermore, it is found that the retirement provisions in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan can well be divided into two groups based on the level of pension right protection and illustrate different characteristics between them accordingly. In addition, policy implications and suggestions for further reforms of these retirement payment schemes are elaborated in the light of the findings of this policy index system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the mandated reporting of key performance indicators by public agencies to public accountability authorities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The author suggests that the existence of these indicators in public agencies' annual reports and budget papers does not necessarily lead to their effective use for decision making. The actual utilization of these indicators for making decisions should be described as careful and cautious. They are still affective because they give symbolic benefits to the government.