November 2023

Retirement Planning: The Volatility-Adjusted Coverage Ratio

By Javier Estrada  The important decisions that retirees have to make to try to achieve their financial goals during retirement often stem from models used by financial planners. Despite the important role it plays in many of those models, the failure rate has several limitations and many alternatives have been proposed. This article introduces a new metric, the volatility-adjusted coverage ratio, which incorporates the benefit (the coverage ratio) and the cost (the volatility of the portfolio) of the strategies considered....

ESG and Public Pension Investing in 2023: A Year-To-Date Recap and Analysis

By Joshua Lichtenstein, Michael Littenberg & Reagan Haas Since 2021, Ropes & Gray has been actively tracking the various approaches states have taken on how or whether environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors should be applied to the investment decisions for public retirement systems. States have used legislative, administrative and enforcement mechanisms to address this area, which has been complemented by Congressional Republicans’ various attempts to shine a spotlight on ESG in recent months. Judging by the significant uptick in...

Informe de Seguridad Social y Bienestar en las Américas 2020

Por Conferencia Interamericana de Seguridad Social  Esta información permitirá formular recomendaciones de política pública que promuevan una seguridad social universal, de calidad y orientada al bienestar en las Américas, como parte de los esfuerzos basados en la cooperación internacional para garantizar el acceso a este derecho humano. Antes de comenzar, debe decirse que el ISSBA no se publica en un momento cualquiera, sino en medio de una de las mayores crisis sanitarias y económicas de los últimos 100 años. Esto...

Una revisión de los sistemas de pensiones en Latinoamérica

Por David Tuesta Latinoamérica es uno de las regiones pioneras en la introducción de esquemas de capitalización individual como parte de un componente obligatorio en sus sistemas de pensiones. Han pasado treinta años desde que Chile diera el primer paso. ¿Qué han logrado las reformas al día de hoy? ¿Qué retos quedan por superar? El presente documento realiza una revisión de las motivaciones de las reformas y sus avances, tomando la experiencia de Colombia, Chile, México y Perú. Se recogen...

Universalización de las pensiones por vejez en Costa Rica

Por Pablo Sauma Fiatt En diciembre de 2018, 332.194 personas adultas mayores (65 años y más) contaban con una pensión por vejez, contributiva o no contributiva, para una cobertura efectiva de entre el 59% y el 79% de la población de esa edad –el resultado depende de la proyección de población que se utilice–. En cualquiera de los dos casos, el país enfrenta el reto de lograr la cobertura universal de este tipo de pensiones. Se propone otorgar una pensión...

Economía política de las propuestas de reforma de protección a la vejez en Colombia (2019-2020)

Por José Silva Ruiz La economía política estudia la interconexión entre la economía y la política en un Estado que tiene como función esencial el desarrollo del bienestar de la sociedad y la asignación de recursos; en este caso, para asegurar una vejez digna de la población. Desde esta perspectiva se describen las propuestas de reforma bajo tres supuestos e instrumentos de análisis: 1) individualismo metodológico (intereses privados propios o de las instituciones que representan los actores); 2) elección racional...

Pension Reforms, Longer Working Horizons and Absence from Work

By Giorgio Brunello, Maria De Paola & Lorenzo Rocco Using matched employer-employee data for Italy and newly available information on sick leaves certificates, we study the effect of an exogenous increase in the length of the residual work horizon – triggered by a pension reform that increased minimum retirement age - on middle-aged employees' absence from work due to sick leaves. We find that this effect is positive for females and negative for males. After excluding health as a plausible...

The National Landscape of State Retirement Benefits

By Jonathan Moody & Anthony Randazzo   Retirement security is ultimately about retirement income. Families and individuals want to know that during their retirement years they will have enough weekly, monthly, or annual income to live comfortably and meet their basic needs. Of course, many people aspire to more than just the basics. Ask even a handful of individuals about how they want to live in retirement, and you’ll hear a wide range of preferences. Expenses can vary from family-to-family, too,...

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World

By Axel Börsch-Supan & Courtney C. Coile This ninth phase of the International Social Security project, which studies the experiences of twelve developed countries, examines the effects of public pension reform on employment at older ages. In the past two decades, men’s labor force participation at older ages has increased, reversing a long-term pattern of decline; participation rates for older women have increased dramatically as well. While better health, more education, and changes in labor-supply behavior of married couples may...

Unionization of Retired Workers in Europe

By Vinzenz Pyka & Claus Schnabel We shed light on an understudied group: retirees in unions. Using representative individual-level data of 19 European countries, we find that the share of retirees in unions and the union density of retirees increased between 2008 and 2020. Econometric analyses indicate that on average retired workers' probability of union membership is 17 percentage points lower than that of active workers. This finding is consistent with social custom models and cost-benefit considerations. We further find that...