February 2017

03Feb

Taxing Pensions

By Pierre Pestieau and Helmuth Cremer There exists a wide variety of tax treatments of pensions across the world. And the reasons for such a range of regimes are not clear. This note reviews the general principles of pension taxes and analyses the theoretical foundations of why pension incomes ought to be taxed specifically. To do this, one has to distinguish between public and private pensions. The design of public pensions cannot be separated from the one of taxation. Regarding...

February 3, 2017
Regulation,
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03Feb

Pensions as a Form of Executive Compensation

By Lisa Goh and Yong Li This paper investigates the role of pensions as an element of total executive compensation, and the relationship between pensions and performance-based compensation in executive pay. Using hand-collected data on FTSE 100 CEOs and senior executives from 2004−2011, we document that pensions function as a substitute for performance-based com-pensation (primarily bonuses) in both cross-sectional and time-series settings. We also examine the effect of corporate governance characteristics on executive pensions. We find that corporate governance characteristics...

February 3, 2017
Labor Market,
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03Feb

Beyond Contributory Pensions : Fourteen Experiences with Coverage Expansion in Latin America

By Rafael Rofman, Ignacio Apella and Evelyn Vezza Latin America's population is aging, and many among the growing elderly population are not protected by traditional pension schemes. In response, policy makers have been reevaluating their income protection systems so that between 2000 and 2013, the majority of Latin American countries reformed their social pension schemes to provide near-universal coverage for the elderly. Before this unprecedented wave of reform, most income protection in Latin America was provided through contributory pensions available...

February 3, 2017
Savings, System Sustainability
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03Feb

Pension Coverage for Parents and Educational Investment in Children : Evidence from Urban China

By Yang Du and Ren Mu When social security is established to provide pensions to parents, their reliance upon children for future financial support decreases, and their need to save for retirement also falls. In this study, the expansion of pension coverage from the state sector to the non-state sector in urban China is used as a quasi-experiment to analyze the intergenerational impact of social security on education investments in children. In a difference-in-differences framework, a significant increase in the...

February 3, 2017
Adequacy, Labor Market
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03Feb

The Greek Pension Reform Strategy 2010–2015

By Georgios Symeonidis In 2010, Greece, under the pressure of an increasing public debt, was forced to resort to the Troika, which is the designation of the triumvirate which comprises the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Troika agreed to provide Greece with financial help, on special terms recorded in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Greek Government and the Troika. One of the most important reforms that are recorded...

February 3, 2017
Regulation,
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03Feb

Pension Risk and Risk Based Supervision in Defined Contribution Pension Funds

By Rodolph Heinz and Randle Tony The main goal of any pension system is to ensure that members receive an adequate pension income when they retire. Whilst traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans set out what that pension income will be in advance and then strive to deliver it, the growing number of defined contribution (DC) plans accumulates a sum of assets which can then be turned into a pension income on retirement. However, the amount of this retirement income...

February 3, 2017
Investing, Regulation
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03Feb

Building Voluntary Pension Schemes in Emerging Economies

By Rodolph Heinz After the financial crisis, some Central and Eastern Europe countries partially or totally reversed the pension reforms they had initiated in the previous two decades. In the presence of an aging population in the region, reductions in replacement rates will be the most likely adjustment mechanism for the social security systems to remain fiscally sustainable. In some other emerging economies, mandatory funded schemes are operating with low contribution rates, and policy makers have not been able to...

February 3, 2017
Labor Market, System Sustainability
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03Feb

Outcome Based Assessments for Private Pensions : A Handbook

By William Price, John Ashcroft and Michael Hafeman This report illustrates a new methodology to develop an Outcomes and Risk Based Supervision (ORBS) framework for funded pensions with a case study of Costa Rica. The approach was used in a FIRST funded project in Costa Rica with the regulator and supervisor of pensions SUPEN. The intention is to highlight an approach that may be useful in the region, and globally, to help agencies responsible for private pensions to focus on...

February 3, 2017
Adequacy, System Sustainability
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03Feb

Pensions for Public-Sector Employees : Lessons from OECD Countries’ Experience

By Edward Whitehouse In 27 out of 34 OECD member countries, there is institutionally separate retirement-income provision for some or all public-sector workers. But the scope of these pension schemes varies significantly: from a modest top-up to the national pension arrangements (covering private-sector workers as well) to entirely independent retirement-income regimes. Average expenditure on these schemes amounts to about 1.5 percent of GDP, or nearly a quarter of total public pension spending. Public-sector pension reform is an issue of great...

February 3, 2017
Pension design, Regulation,
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03Feb

OECD Institutional Investors Statistics

By OECD Institutional investors (investment funds, insurance companies and pension funds) are major collectors of savings and suppliers of funds to financial markets. Their role as financial intermediaries and their impact on investment strategies have grown significantly over recent years along with deregulation and globalisation of financial markets. This series provides a unique set of statistics that reflect the level and structure of the financial assets of institutional investors. Data include outstanding amounts of financial assets such as currency and deposits,...

February 3, 2017
Investing, System Sustainability
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