April 2025

State of Social Protection Report 2025: The 2-Billion-Person Challenge

By The World Bank   Today, more people have access to social protection now than at any point in history. Over the last decade, 4.7 billion people across low- and middle-income countries gained access to social protection. However, critical gaps remain. Two billion people in those countries remain uncovered or inadequately covered by social protection. The State of Social Protection Report 2025: The 2-Billion-Person Challenge documents advances and challenges to strengthening social protection and labor systems across low- and middle-income countries and...

March 2025

Parental Leave Policies, Fertility, and Labor Supply

By Daisoon Kim & Minchul Yum South Korea has been facing persistently low fertility rates and large gender gaps in labor supply. In response, the government has expanded parental leave benefits to address these challenges. To evaluate the effectiveness of these policies, we develop a quantitative, heterogeneous-household life-cycle model in which couples make joint decisions on careers, labor supply, savings, and child-related choices, including fertility, childcare, and parental leave take-up. The model is calibrated to recent Korean cohorts to replicate...

Considerations on ESG Investment Implementation

By Laura T. Starks Although interest in investing according to environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) standards is widespread, investment managers face a number of basic considerations with their portfolio choices. In this article, I give a high-level overview of these considerations within the context of the investor motivation: ESG values, ESG value, or both. These considerations include whether investors should exclude certain firms or use a positive tilt; how they could integrate ESG into an investment approach; the role...

Can ChatGPT Plan Your Retirement?: Generative AI and Financial Advice

By Andrew W. Lo, Jillian Ross We identify some of the most pressing issues facing the adoption of large language models (LLMs) in practical settings, and propose a research agenda to reach the next technological inflection point in generative AI. We focus on four challenges facing most LLM applications: domain-specific expertise, an ability to tailor that expertise to a user’s unique situation, trustworthiness and adherence to the user’s moral and ethical standards, and conformity to regulatory guidelines and oversight. These...

Future-Proofing the Longevity Economy: Innovations and Key Trends

By World Economic Forum The world is at a pivotal moment in its demographic transition, with more than one in four people now living in countries where the population has peaked. This shift, coupled with increasing life expectancy and declining birth rates, presents both urgent challenges and unprecedented opportunities. Building on the Longevity Economy Principles, this white paper synthesizes five key trends shaping the future of the longevity economy: building resilient public retirement systems; transitioning from savings accumulation to decumulation; enhancing the...

What Age Do People Around the World Think Is Best to Reach Major Life Milestones?

When is the right time in life to get married or have a child? What is the best age to buy a home? Is there an ideal age for retirement? We asked adults in 18 mostly middle-income countries what they think is the best age to reach these life milestones. Overall, there is a lot of agreement around the world. A chart showing The ideal ages for major life events, according to people in 18 nations On average across the countries...

UK. DWP State Pension age to rise next year for thousands

The State Pension age will be rising from next year, the age is currently 66 for both men and women. It will gradually increase to 67 between 2026 and 2028 for those born after April 1960. The transition process is then expected to be completed for everyone by March 2028. The planned change to the official age of retirement has been in legislation since 2014, with a further rise from 67 to 68, which is set to be implemented between...

US. Some retirees will see bump in Social Security benefit starting next month

Retirement just got a little boost for many public sector retirees and their spouses. By the end of this month, more than 3 million Social Security recipients affected by the Social Security Fairness Act that President Biden signed into law in January will see a bump in their benefits. This law increases monthly Social Security benefits for certain types of workers, including some teachers, firefighters, and police officers in many states, federal employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System, and...

South Korea approves reforms to shore up $830 bln state pension fund

South Korea's parliament on Thursday passed a bill to reform the country's $830 billion pension fund and delay the depletion of the state fund that has been on track to run out by the mid-2050s due to a rapidly ageing population. The bill's passage marks the first time parliament has agreed to a major shake-up in the state pension fund in 18 years and could delay depletion by 15 years. Under the legislative amendment, contributions and payouts will rise, the former...

Argentina: Pensioners and soccer fans unite in protests

Argentine pensioners and soccer fans clashed with police on Wednesday as a protest unfolded in front of Congress, with citizens rallying against the economic policies brought in by the government of President Javier Milei. It was an unlikely mix with retirees gathered in Buenos Aires flanked by soccer fans from teams normally at odds with one another. What started as a peaceful event escalated into violent clashes as police fired water cannons, tear gas and pellets while protesters threw stones. The crowd...