April 2018

23Apr

Financializing Poverty: Labor and Risk in Indian Microfinance

By Sohini Kar Microfinance is the business of giving small, collateral-free loans to poor borrowers that are paid back in frequent intervals with interest. While these for-profit microfinance institutions (MFIs) promise social and economic empowerment, they have mainly succeeded at enfolding the poor—especially women—into the vast circuits of global finance. Financializing Poverty ethnographically examines how the emergence of MFIs has allowed financial institutions in the city of Kolkata, India, to capitalize on the poverty of its residents. This book reveals how...

April 23, 2018
Books, Labor Market
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23Apr

Healthy Ageing: A Capability Approach to Inclusive Policy and Practice

By Christine Stephens &‎ Mary Breheny What does it mean to age well? This important new book redefines what ‘successful’ aging means, challenging the idea that physical health is the only criteria to gauge the aging process, and that an aging population is necessarily a burden upon society. Using Sen’s Capabilities Approach as a theoretical starting point Healthy Ageing: A Capability Approach to Inclusive Policy and Practice outlines a nuanced perspective that transcends the purely biomedical view, recognising ideas of resilience,...

April 23, 2018
Aging, Books, Labor Market,
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23Apr

Selecting Directors Using Machine Learning

By Isil Erel, Léa H. Stern, Chenhao Tan, Michael S. Weisbach Can an algorithm assist firms in their hiring decisions of corporate directors? This paper proposes a method of selecting boards of directors that relies on machine learning. We develop algorithms with the goal of selecting directors that would be preferred by the shareholders of a particular firm. Using shareholder support for individual directors in subsequent elections and firm profitability as performance measures, we construct algorithms to make out-of-sample predictions...

April 23, 2018
Articles, Corporate Governance,
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23Apr

Organizing Old Age Pensions for India’s Informal Workers: A Case Study of a Sector-Driven Approach

By M.R. Narayana (University of Mysore) About 88 percent of India’s total labor force is composed of informal (officially labeled “unorganized”) workers. As many as 388 million such workers lack old age income security by way of a pension system. The Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is the latest contributory, national-level old age pension scheme for unorganized workers, with an entry age of 18–40 years. In other words, all current unorganized workers above the age of 40 are excluded. How could...

April 23, 2018
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, , ,
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23Apr

Organizing Old Age Pensions for India's Informal Workers: A Case Study of a Sector-Driven Approach

By M.R. Narayana (University of Mysore) About 88 percent of India’s total labor force is composed of informal (officially labeled “unorganized”) workers. As many as 388 million such workers lack old age income security by way of a pension system. The Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is the latest contributory, national-level old age pension scheme for unorganized workers, with an entry age of 18–40 years. In other words, all current unorganized workers above the age of 40 are excluded. How could...

April 23, 2018
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, , ,
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23Apr

Retirement Drawdown Defaults: The Role of Implied Endorsement

By Jennifer Alonso-García (University of New South Wales (UNSW) - ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR)), Hazel Bateman (University of New South Wales (UNSW) - School of Actuarial Studies, Centre for Pensions and Superannuation), Johan Bonekamp (Tilburg University - Department of Econometrics & Operations Research), Ralph Stevens (CPB Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis; CEPAR) This paper explores whether implied endorsement can serve as an explanation for the stickiness of retirement drawdown defaults. Using an experimental survey...

April 23, 2018
Articles, Pension design, Savings, ,
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20Apr

Hubo dos muertos y numerosos heridos en protestas en Nicaragua

Al menos un manifestante y un policía resultaron muertos este jueves en las violentas protestas que por segundo día estallaron en Nicaragua contra un paquete de reformas al sistema de pensiones decretado por el gobierno de Daniel Ortega y su esposa Rosario Murillo. En medio de las manifestaciones, el gobierno cerró cuatro canales privados de televisión para impedir que se difundan las imágenes de los incidentes, pero esta madrugada ya dos de esas señales habian vuelto al aire. Los muertos...

April 20, 2018
Noticias
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20Apr

México. Piden asegurar Afores que invierten en NAIM

Para proteger la inversión de las Afores en el Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de México, es necesario que se diseñe en el mercado una cobertura que proteja de pérdidas a las pensiones. Así lo sugirió Ramiro Tovar, académico del Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) y analista en pensiones. Entrevistado, explicó que si bien las cuatro Afores que invirtieron una parte de las cuentas individuales de pensión en el nuevo aeropuerto (Inbursa, Pensionissste, Profuturo y XXI-Banorte) estimaron el tiempo en el que...

April 20, 2018
Noticias
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20Apr

South Africa. Typical pensioner income up 17% in real terms, review shows

In February private pensions paid to South Africans grew at the fastest rate in five years, a report from BankServAfrica indicated. Average private pensions increased by 11.5% year-on-year in February in nominal terms and private pensioners received R7 029 on average in February 2018. Despite the 4% inflation rate reducing private pensioner payments to 6.8%, BankServAfrica indicated this was the highest year-on-year growth it had recorded. Chief economist at Economists.co.za, Mike Schüssler, says it is a good thing that pensioners are...

April 20, 2018
News
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