admin, Author at Pension Policy International

12JanJanuary 12, 2017

The Information Content of Corporate Pension Funding Status in Japan

By Shingo Goto & Noriyoshi Yanase - This paper tests if a firm's pension funding ratio (pension assets/PBO) reveals the management's private information about the firm's operation when the firm can exercise discretion in pension funding. The lax enforcement of pension funding rules and the prevalence of management forecasts make Japanese firms an ideal testing ground. We show that, among firms with large business uncertainty, large accruals, or high effective tax rates, the pension funding ratio predicts the firm's management forecast...

January 12, 2017

Corporate Governance

12JanJanuary 12, 2017

Trusts No More: Rethinking the Regulation of Retirement Savings in the United States

By Natalya Shnitser - The regulation of private and public pension plans in the United States begins with the premise that employer-sponsored plans resemble traditional donative, or gift, trusts. Accordingly, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) famously “imports” major principles of donative trust law for the regulation of private employer-sponsored pension plans. Statutes regulating state and local government pension plans likewise routinely invoke the structure and standards applicable to donative trusts. Judges, in turn, adjudicate by analogy...

January 12, 2017

Articles, Corporate Governance, RegulationCorporate Governance, Regulation, Sustainability

12JanJanuary 12, 2017

The Power of Social Pensions

By Wei Huang & Chuanchuan Zhang - This paper examines the impacts of social pension provision among people of different ages. Utilizing the county-by-county rollout of the New Rural Pension Scheme in rural China, we find that, among the age-eligible people, the scheme provision leads to higher household income (18 percent) and food expenditure (10 percent), lower labor supply (6 percent), and better health (11-14 percent). In addition, among the age-ineligible adults, the pension scheme shifts them from farming to...

January 12, 2017

Adequacy, System SustainabilityLabor Market, Social Protection

12JanJanuary 12, 2017

Why Do Women Invest Differently than Men?

By Vickie L. Bajtelsmit & Alexandra Bernasek - Several recent studies have found that women invest their pensions more conservatively than men (Bajtelsmit and VanDerhei, 1996; Hinz, McCarthy, and Turner, 1996) and that women are more risk averse (Jianakoplos and Bernasek, 1996). Although these findings have serious implications for the well-being of women in retirement, the reasons for observed gender differences are less well- defined. This paper surveys the existing literature regarding gender differences in investment and considers the policy implications...

January 12, 2017

InvestingBehavior

12JanJanuary 12, 2017

IDA at 65: Heading Toward Retirement or a Fragile Lease on Life? – Working Paper 246

By Todd Moss and Benjamin Leo - As the concessionary lending window of the World Bank, the International Development Association (IDA) has provided grants and low-interest loans to the world's poorest countries for over 50 years. IDA funds projects that address many of the problems associated with slower growth in developing countries related to primary education, basic health services, clean water supply and sanitation, environmental safeguards, business-climate improvements, infrastructure, and institutional reforms. However, looking to the future, IDA's operations will likely be substantially...

January 12, 2017

Corporate Governance, Labor Market, NewsAdequacy

12JanJanuary 12, 2017

Financial Regulations for Improving Financial Inclusion

By Stijn Claessens & Liliana Rojas-Suarez - As recently as 2011, only 42 percent of adult Kenyans had a financial account of any kind; by 2014, according to the Global Findex database (World Bank 2015), that number had risen to 75 percent, including 63 percent of the poorest two-fifths. In Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, the share of adults with financial accounts, either a traditional bank account or a mobile account, rose by nearly half over the same period. Many countries in other...

January 12, 2017

RegulationFinancial Inclusion

12JanJanuary 12, 2017

Ahorrar para desarrollarse: Cómo América Latina y el Caribe puede ahorrar más y mejor

Por Eduardo Cavallo y Tomás Serebrisky - En las discusiones sobre desarrollo se suele escuchar que América Latina y el Caribe ahorra poco. Y los datos están ahí para demostrarlo: la región ahorra entre 10 y 15 puntos porcentuales del producto interno bruto (PIB) menos que los países más dinámicos de Asia emergente. En el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) sabemos que entender por qué ocurre esto, y —sobre todo— cómo y en qué ahorra América Latina es crucial para...

January 12, 2017

Artículos, Asignación de recursos, Noticias, SpanishBehavior, Investment, Operations, Savings, Social Protection

12JanJanuary 12, 2017

2016 SBST report

By Social and Behavioral Sciences Team - Last September, President Obama issued an Executive Order directing Federal agencies to integrate behavioral-science insights—research insights about how people make decisions and act on them—into the design of their policies and programs. The Executive Order also charged the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST), a cross-agency group of applied behavioral scientists, program officials, and policymakers, with providing policy guidance and advice to Federal agencies in support of this directive. The Social and Behavioral Sciences...

January 12, 2017

Aging, Pension designBehavior

12JanJanuary 12, 2017

Workable Pension Systems: Reforms in the Caribbean

By P. Desmond Brunton & Pietro Masci - Expenditure on pensions is frequently the highest single item in the public sector budgets of most countries. At the same time, demographic trends in almost every country show that populations are aging rapidly, due to lower fertility rates and improvements in life expectancy. The implications of these trends are that budget deficits are becoming unsustainable, with significant negative effects on competitiveness and economic growth. Inefficient management and underfunding of public pension systems as...

January 12, 2017

Articles, Uncategorized

12JanJanuary 12, 2017

The Norway Model

By David Chambers, Elroy Dimson & Antti Ilmanen - The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global was recently ranked the largest fund on the planet. It is also highly rated for its professional, low-cost, transparent, and socially responsible approach to asset management. Investment professionals increasingly refer to Norway as a model for managing financial assets. We present and evaluate the strategies followed by the Fund, review long-term performance, and describe how it responded to the financial crisis. We conclude with some...

January 12, 2017

News

January 2017