December 2017
04Dec

G20 Nations Shifting the Trillions: Impact Investing, Green Infrastructure and Inclusive Growth

By M. Nicolas J. Firzli (World Pensions Council (WPC)) The 2017 Spring Meetings coincided with the surprise calling of snap general elections in the UK and military tensions in the Yellow Sea. Our postwar social contract has to cope with unprecedented shocks: Britain’s thorny withdrawal from the EU, worsening Migrant Crisis, rise in populist demagoguery. But there are also positive signs: the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and new, more demanding governance norms are making unprecedented advances across the boardrooms of...

December 4, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Investing, Regulation, Slider-Left, , , , ,
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November 2017

20Nov

The Rising Longevity Gap by Lifetime Earnings – Distributional Implications for the Pension System

By Peter Haan (DIW Berlin), Daniel Kemptner (DIW Berlin), Holger Lüthen (DIW Berlin) This study uses German social security records to provide novel evidence about the heterogeneity in life expectancy by lifetime earnings and, additionally, documents the distributional implications of this earnings-related heterogeneity. We find a strong association between lifetime earnings and life expectancy at age 65 and show that the longevity gap is increasing across cohorts. For West German men born 1926-28, the longevity gap between top and bottom...

November 20, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Savings, Slider-Left, Uncategorized, ,
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14Nov

Pension Goals and Institutional Arrangements: Reforms DC 2.0 for Latin America

By Manuel Enrique Garcia Huitron Sr. (Inter-American Development Bank) & Eduardo Rodriguez-Montemayor (INSEAD) The pioneering pension reforms that brought a market for individual defined-contribution (DC) pension accounts to some Latin American countries in the 1980s and 1990s have failed to gain widespread social legitimacy. Such systems do not cover everyone, and the market design and regulatory infrastructure are not geared towards achieving the objective of maximizing the value of pensions. This failure stems from a combination of flaws in the...

November 14, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Pension design, Slider-Left, System Sustainability, , ,
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12Nov

Rethinking Limits on Tax-Deferred Retirement Savings in Canada

By William B. P. Robson (C.D. Howe Institute) Tax rules limiting the amount of tax deferral available to Canadians in various retirement saving vehicles need some measure of equivalency among them. Since 1990 this measure has been the Factor of Nine, based on the proposition that saving 9 percent of annual earnings will let a person buy a retirement annuity equal to 1 percent of pre-retirement income. A quarter century later, the flaws in the Factor of Nine are glaring...

November 12, 2017
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, ,
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12Nov

Alternative Measures of Non-Cognitive Skills and Their Effect on Retirement Preparation and Financial Capability

By Gema Zamarro (University of Arkansas) Social science, more than ever, is drawing upon the insights of personality psychology. Though researchers now know that non-cognitive skills and personality traits, such as conscientiousness, grit, self-control, or a growth mindset could be important for life outcomes, they struggle to find reliable measures of these skills. Self-reports are often used for analysis but these measures have been found to be affected by important biases. We study the validity of innovative more robust measures...

November 12, 2017
Articles, Investing, Pension design, Slider-Left, System Sustainability,
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03Nov

What are the effects of expanding a social pension program on extreme poverty and labor supply ? evidence from Mexico's pension program for the elderly (English)

By Clemente Avila Parra & David Ricardo Escamilla Guerrero In 2013, Mexico's Social Pension Program for the Elderly was expanded by changing its eligibility threshold from age 70 to age 65. Using pooled cross-sectional data from Mexico's National Household Income and Expenditure Survey, the exogenous variation around eligibility age was exploited to uncover the causal effects of this expansion on extreme poverty and labor supply of the newly eligible population, and to explore potential transmission mechanisms. Applying quasi-experimental methods, results...

November 3, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, Slider-Left, , , ,
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03Nov

What are the effects of expanding a social pension program on extreme poverty and labor supply ? evidence from Mexico’s pension program for the elderly (English)

By Clemente Avila Parra & David Ricardo Escamilla Guerrero In 2013, Mexico's Social Pension Program for the Elderly was expanded by changing its eligibility threshold from age 70 to age 65. Using pooled cross-sectional data from Mexico's National Household Income and Expenditure Survey, the exogenous variation around eligibility age was exploited to uncover the causal effects of this expansion on extreme poverty and labor supply of the newly eligible population, and to explore potential transmission mechanisms. Applying quasi-experimental methods, results...

November 3, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, Slider-Left, , , ,
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03Nov

Framing the Future: Using Investment and Assurance Frames to Encourage Retirement Information Search

By Wiebke Eberhardt, Elisabeth Brüggen (Maastricht University), Thomas Post (Netspar), Chantal Hoet (Aegon) Many pension plan participants are inactive. They do not look up information on their retirement income and discover pension gaps too late to take action. We analyze how pension communication framing interventions motivate participants to acquire retirement income information. First, we show that classical loss frames (vs. gain) are an effective intervention, but also evoke negative perceptions and evaluations. Second, we develop new frames (assurance, investment) tapping...

November 3, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Management
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03Nov

The Nation's Retirement System: A Comprehensive Re-Evaluation Is Needed to Better Promote Future Retirement Security

By Charles A. Jeszeck, Margie K Shields, Justine Augeri, Christina Cantor, Gustavo Fernandez, Jennifer Gregory, Adam Wendel, Seyda Wentworth (Government Accountability Office) The U.S. retirement system, and the workers and retirees it was designed to help, face major challenges. Traditional pensions have become much less common, and individuals are increasingly responsible for planning and managing their own retirement savings accounts, such as 401(k) plans. Yet research shows that many households are ill-equipped for this task and have little or no...

November 3, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Regulation, , ,
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03Nov

The Nation’s Retirement System: A Comprehensive Re-Evaluation Is Needed to Better Promote Future Retirement Security

By Charles A. Jeszeck, Margie K Shields, Justine Augeri, Christina Cantor, Gustavo Fernandez, Jennifer Gregory, Adam Wendel, Seyda Wentworth (Government Accountability Office) The U.S. retirement system, and the workers and retirees it was designed to help, face major challenges. Traditional pensions have become much less common, and individuals are increasingly responsible for planning and managing their own retirement savings accounts, such as 401(k) plans. Yet research shows that many households are ill-equipped for this task and have little or no...

November 3, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Regulation, , ,
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