August 2026

Shadow Pensions: An Exploratory Field Study of Informal Old-Age Income Strategies Among Jakarta’s Unregistered Workforce

By Fajrin Andi Muhamad Pratama Indonesia's main old-age insurance program, BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, is built almost entirely around formal employment-yet three in five Indonesian workers are informal, and only a small fraction of them are ever enrolled. National statistics capture the size of that gap well; they say almost nothing about what people actually do instead. I spent three days in Jakarta interviewing market traders and ojek drivers to find out. The results were not quite what I expected going in....

Saving for Old Age

By Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Leora F. Klapper & Georgios A. Panos Countries around the world face a retirement crisis brought on by aging populations, declining birthrates, and fiscal shortfalls. As a result, policy makers increasingly seek to understand retirement savings patterns, a crucial component of the safety net for the elderly. Drawing on the 2014 Global Findex database, which provides individual-level data on the use of financial products in more than 140 countries, this paper examines how adults save for old...

The Effect of Regularization Policies for Migrants on the Labor Market

By Puren Demirel This study reviews the labor-market effects of policies aimed at regularizing irregular migrants, with particular emphasis on amnesty programs and access to legal employment. Drawing on the existing literature and country experiences, it examines the mechanisms through which regularization may affect migrants, local workers, employers, and the broader economy. The analysis highlights that the effects of regularization depend strongly on host-country characteristics, including the size of the informal economy, labor-market structure, welfare arrangements, inspection capacity, and geographical...

México. ¿Tu ahorro alcanzará para los años de retiro? Los retos de la etapa de desacumulación

El envejecimiento de la población y el aumento en la esperanza de vida imponen nuevos desafíos financieros. Ya no basta con ahorrar durante la vida laboral; hoy se vuelve crucial planear cómo transformar esos ahorros en ingresos constantes para la etapa de jubilación. Esta transición, conocida como desacumulación en el retiro, define el futuro del bienestar económico individual. De acuerdo con el estudio Cómo preparar el futuro para la economía de la longevidad: innovaciones y tendencias clave, realizado por el...

Ordinary Americans struggle to fund their 401(k) plans while plutocrats fill theirs with tax-free millions

For a half-century, Congress has been offering middle- and working-class Americans options for tax-advantaged individual retirement savings, largely to compensate for the disappearance of traditional pensions. But the transition from so-called defined benefit pensions to defined contribution accounts such as 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts hasn’t worked for millions of Americans. Roughly 40% of working Americans don’t have any retirement savings at all, and among those who do, their savings are too meager to support them through their retirement...

German pensioners facing uphill battle to make ends meet as economic stagnation bites

Millions of pensioners in Germany are struggling to make ends meet due to fixed incomes, rising costs of housing, utilities, and healthcare, and inadequate retirement savings as the country undergoes a period of economic stagnation. In Germany, the risk of poverty generally does not refer to extreme poverty as seen in some developing countries, but rather to relative poverty, which is measured in relation to the median income of the country’s total population. According to the European Union Statistics on Income...

India. New Pension Scheme: Deposit just Rs 99 every month and get pension, new scheme launched

Gig workers working for e-commerce platforms like Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, and Urban Company can also receive pensions. A new framework has been introduced under the National Pension System (NPS), allowing these workers to start their retirement fund with a small contribution of just ₹99. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) announced this new facility on Wednesday, which will directly benefit millions of gig workers. The PFRDA stated that platform workers can now invest in NPS at their convenience....

México. SCJN avala Fondo de Pensiones para el Bienestar; niega que se hayan confiscado ahorros de trabajadores

La Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN) avaló ayer el Fondo de Pensiones para el Bienestar, creado en 2024 con 48 mil 894 millones de pesos provenientes de cuentas individuales inactivas transferidas de las Afore al Estado, al concluir que la medida no implicó una “confiscación o expropiación” de los ahorros, sino un cambio en la administración de los recursos para fortalecer el sistema de seguridad social. Por unanimidad, el pleno aprobó el proyecto de la ministra Loretta...

Corte regresaría la reforma pensional de Petro al Congreso por segunda vez, esto se sabe

La reforma pensional impulsada durante el gobierno de Gustavo Petro volvería a quedar en manos del Congreso. La ponencia de la magistrada Paola Andrea Meneses, presidenta de la Corte Constitucional, propondría devolver por segunda vez la Ley 2381 de 2024 a la Cámara de Representantes para que corrija los vicios de procedimiento que, según el alto tribunal, todavía impedirían su entrada en vigencia. La Sala Plena tiene previsto retomar este jueves 13 de agosto el estudio de la norma, que...

U.S. DC pension plan sponsors enhancing support for members, but gaps remain: survey

The survey, which polled more than 500 DC plan sponsors, found employers are asking their DC plans to deliver more than ever, including enhancing the employee experience (69 per cent) and improving retirement outcomes (63 per cent). Three in four ranked retirement savings as a core or top priority within total rewards. However, the survey found many plans are still measured, governed and delivered for a different era, leaving a gap between what employers expect and what their plans are...