May 2022

Aging beyond retirement: How Canadians can afford to grow old

That’s the number of siblings Dr. Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald’s mother had growing up. An astounding number, even at a time when families were known for having large broods. While it might seem overwhelming, to say the least, there certainly were benefits to having so many kids, says Dr. MacDonald, the director of financial security research for the National Institute on Aging (NIA). “My mother came from a family of 14 kids, and suddenly you have much fewer people to do that care...

56% de los mexicanos no tiene un trabajo formal; vive sin seguro social o ahorro para el retiro

56% de los mexicanos no tiene un trabajo formal; vive sin seguro social o ahorro para el retiro

Pamela González, abogada especializada en la implementación de la Reforma Laboral, dijo que, de acuerdo con el Inegi, la informalidad en 2021 ascendió casi a un 57% de la población Este 1 de mayo, Día Internacional de los Trabajadores, se hace un homenaje a los mártires de Chicago como una forma de reivindicar los derechos de los trabajadores. En entrevista con el Informativo Fin de Semana de El Heraldo Media Group, Pamela González, abogada especializada en la implementación de la Reforma...

Cientos marchan en Puerto Rico por la salud, educación y pensiones dignas

Cientos marchan en Puerto Rico por la salud, educación y pensiones dignas

Cientos de miembros de varios sindicatos en Puerto Rico marcharon este domingo hacia La Fortaleza, sede del Ejecutivo, reclamando en el Día Internacional del Trabajador, por el derecho a la salud, la educación y las pensiones dignas. Algunos de los grupos que participaron en la marcha fueron la Unión de Trabajadores de la Industria Eléctrica y Riego (Utier), la Federación Central de Trabajadores, la Unión General de Trabajadores, la Federación de Maestros y la Asociación Puertorriqueña de Profesores Universitarios. Leer más...

April 2022

Europe dominates green finance index, but U.S. cities catching up

Western European cities, led by London, continue to dominate when it comes to green finance, but U.S. cities are starting to catch up, according to the Global Green Finance index published Thursday by London consultancy Z/Yen Group. Compared with the first one published in March 2018, the ninth edition of the semiannual index found more correlation between U.S. cities' standing as financial centers and their green credentials, said Mike Wardle, a director and head of indexes for Z/Yen, in an...

US. Companies Look to Diversify Their Pension Investments as Funding Levels Soar

Companies are looking for alternative investment options for their pension plan funds—for example, high-quality private credit—as they look to diversify their holdings amid high funding levels. Businesses in recent years have invested a greater proportion of their plans in fixed-income securities, which are considered safer bets than assets such as equities, commodities, private equity and real estate. S&P 1500 companies invested 51% of their plan funds in fixed income in 2021, up from 50% a year earlier and 42% a...

Chile. Este jueves finalizó el plazo para solicitar el tercer retiro de las AFP

Chile. Este jueves finalizó el plazo para solicitar el tercer retiro de las AFP

A casi un año desde que entrara en vigor la normativa, la Superintendencia de Pensiones recordó que los cotizantes pueden solicitar como máximo el 10% de sus ahorros previsionales hasta la medianoche de hoy. El último balance reveló que entre los tres proyectos se han realizado más de 28,4 millones de pagos. Este jueves 28 de abril finaliza el plazo para que los cotizantes soliciten el tercer retiro de los ahorros disponibles en las Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones (AFP). La...

South Africa. How financially sound is the Government Employees’ Pension Fund?

The country’s biggest and most important pension fund is healthy, but there are some reasons to be concerned. The extraordinary rise in the value of the JSE between March 2020 and March 2021 stemmed three years of declining values within the Government Employees’ Pension Fund (GEPF) and has placed it in a sound financial position as far as short-term commitments are concerned. However, it is unlikely that investors will see another year where the JSE rises by 55%, which makes the...

UK. Pension schemes remain uninsured for cyber risks

Nearly half of UK pension schemes still do not have insurance against cyber attacks, and a similar proportion are lacking the specialist skills needed to deal with the threat. That is according to a new report from risk advisory firm Crowe, which surveyed pension scheme trustees on the challenges facing them as fraud and cybercrime levels rise. Worryingly, 43% of respondents said that they had not tested the strength of their scheme's IT systems, processes and procedures for cybercrime protection, while...

The Causal Effects of Place on Health and Longevity

The Causal Effects of Place on Health and Longevity

By Tatyana Deryugina & David Molitor Life expectancy varies substantially across local regions within a country, raising conjectures that place of residence affects health. However, population sorting and other confounders make it difficult to disentangle the effects of place on health from other geographic differences in life expectancy. Recent studies have overcome such challenges to demonstrate that place of residence substantially influences health and mortality. Whether policies that encourage people to move to places that are better for their health...

The New Corporate Governance

The New Corporate Governance

By Oliver D. Hart & Luigi Zingales In the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in shareholder engagement on environmental and social issues. In some cases shareholders are pushing companies to take actions that may reduce market value. It is hard to understand this behavior using the dominant corporate governance paradigm based on shareholder value maximization. We explain how jurisprudence has sustained this criterion in spite of its economic weaknesses. To overcome these weaknesses we propose the...