October 2019

04Oct

Defined Benefit Pension De-Risking and Corporate Investment Policy

By Brian Silverstein U.S. corporate sponsors of defined benefit pension plans in recent years have been de-risking by paying premiums to transfer their pension plan assets and liabilities to the balance sheets of third party insurers. The passage of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) in 2012 provided the pension funding relief necessary to make de-risking a mainstream corporate activity. This study provides the first empirical analysis of plan and firm factors that cause...

October 4, 2019
Articles, Investment, ,
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September 2019

27Sep

Pensions and Early Retirement: The Case of The Public Servants in Uganda

By Kibs Boaz Muhanguzi Retirement, if influenced by pensions, can be a good manifestation of how the government can use the pension system as a fiscal instrument to achieve some socioeconomic targets. Borrowing intuition from the postulations of disengagement theory of aging that when the elderly retire, they free up positions in paid work for the entry of young individuals, this study investigates the role of incentives on early retirement. The high levels of unemployment in Uganda amidst the...

September 27, 2019
Articles, Pension design, System Sustainability, , , ,
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27Sep

Does Automatic Enrollment Increase Contributions to Supplement Retirement Programs by K-12 and University Employees?

By Robert L. Clark, Denis Pelletier This study examines the impact of the adoption of automatic enrollment provisions by schools and universities in the state of South Dakota for its supplemental retirement saving plan (SRP). In South Dakota, educational personnel are also covered by a defined benefit pension plan and by Social Security. Thus, career public employees in South Dakota can expect a life time annuity from these two programs of around 75 percent of their final salary. Prior...

September 27, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Savings, ,
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27Sep

Linking financial services and social protection for resilience: lessons from Kenya

Climate-related shocks and stresses threaten people and communities around the world, compounding existing poverty and vulnerability and undermining long-term development. National and international actors are searching for new and better ways to help people deal with increasing climate risks and, in turn, support long-term resilience. One potential way of doing this is to facilitate access to, and use of, adequate financial services such as savings, loans and insurance in underserved communities. The role of social protection (SP) programmes in helping...

September 27, 2019
Articles, System Sustainability, ,
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20Sep

Family and Government Insurance: Wage, Earnings, and Income Risks in the Netherlands and the U.S.

By Mariacristina De Nardi Giulio, Fella Marike Knoef, Gonzalo Paz-Pardo Raun Van Ooijen We document new facts on the distributions of male wages, male earnings, and household earnings and income (before and after taxes) in the Netherlands and the United States. We find that, in both countries, wages display rich dynamics, including substantial asymmetries and nonlinearities by age and previous earnings levels. Individual-level male wage and earnings risk is relatively high for younger and older people, and for...

September 20, 2019
Articles, Pension design, System Sustainability, , , ,
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20Sep

Old-Age Poverty: The Household Perspective; A Microsimulation Approach of Pension Entitlements in Germany

By Sebastian Finkler Providing a decent living standard and preventing old-age poverty are the two major challenges of pension insurance schemes. Replacement rates below the poverty line despite many years of contribution represent a major challenge for public pension schemes with respect to the systems 'raison d’être'. The focus of the present paper turns away from individual perspective and considers household retirement incomes in the light of analysing old-age poverty and designing (minimum) pension policies. Using household survey and...

September 20, 2019
Adequacy, Aging, Articles, Pension design, , ,
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20Sep

The Development of Social Security in China

 By Gao Zexin, Mario Arturo Ruiz Estrada, Aslam Mohamed, Minsoo Lee Over the past 60 years, the social security system has continued to advance with the development of the economy. Especially since China’s Reform and Opening-up, the role and status of social security have become more and more prominent. With the evolution of value concepts and the transformation of the system interacted with each other, China's social security has embarked on a complicated track of establishing and reform. In...

September 20, 2019
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, System Sustainability, ,
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13Sep

Robo-Advisors: Investing Through Machines

By Facundo Abraham, Sergio L. Schmukler, José Tessada Investing through online automated platforms, known as robo-advisors, is increasingly popular. Robo-advisors expand access to wealth management services by making it easier and less costly to open investments accounts and receive financial advice, as well as plan and automate investment decisions. However, the rise of robo-advisors requires consumers to understand the limitations of these services and to get proper financial education. Policy makers need to grapple with the impact of robo-advisors...

September 13, 2019
Articles, Investing, ,
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13Sep

Reforming Social Security: The Challenge of Income Inequality

By David W. Rasmussen Objective: This article examines the role Social Security plays in alleviating poverty among retirees in the context of threats to its solvency. Method: Examining long-term employment trends, declining access to defined benefit pensions and saving behavior can determine if in the more future Social Security beneficiaries are likely to be poor. Results: Labor market trends driven by technical change, global competition and increasing demand for services indicate that more future retirees will have lower life-time...

September 13, 2019
Adequacy, Articles, Regulation, , ,
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13Sep

Will More Workers Have Nontraditional Jobs as Globalization and Automation Spread?

Matthew S. Rutledge,Gal Wettstein, Sara Ellen King Recent research has called attention to alternative employment arrangements that often leave workers without retirement and health benefits and with income instability. At the same time, workers are facing increasing competition from automation and globalization. This competition is of special concern for older workers, who increasingly need longer careers to secure an adequate retirement and jobs with benefits to enable saving and access to affordable health care. The question is: are these...

September 13, 2019
Articles, Labor Market,
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