May 2017

22May

Interactions between Financial Incentives and Health in the Early Retirement Decision

By Pilar Garcia-Gomez & Eddy van Doorslaer (Erasmus University Rotterdam); Titus J. Galama (USC Center for Economic and Social Research) & Ángel López Nicolás (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) We present a theory of the relation between health and retirement that generates testable predictions regarding the interaction of health, wealth and financial incentives in retirement decisions. The theory predicts (i) that wealthier individuals (compared to poorer individuals) are more likely to retire for health reasons (affordability proposition), and (ii) that health problems...

May 22, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, ,
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22May

Dangerous Flexibility – Retirement Reforms Reconsidered

By Axel H. Börsch-Supan, Tabea Bucher-Koenen, Vesile Kutlu-Koc & Nicolas Goll (Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences) Flexible retirement is supposed to increase labor supply of older workers without touching the third rail of pension politics, the highly unpopular increase of the retirement age. While this may have intuitive appeal, this paper shows that it might be wishful thinking. Economic theory tells us that flexible retirement policies can have a zero or positive effect on labor force...

May 22, 2017
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14May

The Importance of Social Security Benefits to the Income of the Aged Population

By Irena Dushi & Howard Iams (US Social Security Administration); Brad Trenkamp (Government of the United States of America) Social Security benefits comprise the most important source of income for people aged 65 and over. However, changes in the last decades in employer-provided pensions, Social Security program, and societal changes may have altered the composition of income sources among the elderly. Some researchers have argued that the Current Population Survey (CPS ASEC) doesn’t properly measure income from retirement accounts and...

May 14, 2017
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14May

Pension Reforms in the EU since the Early 2000's: Achievements and Challenges Ahead

By Giuseppe Carone & Per Eckefeldt (European Commission); Luigi Giamboni, Veli Laine & Stephanie Pamies Most EU Member States have carried out substantial pension reforms over the last decades in order to enhance fiscal sustainability, while maintaining adequate pension income. The intensity of pension reforms has been particularly strong since 2000. These reforms have been implemented through a wide range of measures that have substantially modified the pension system rules and parameters. One of the most important elements of pension...

May 14, 2017
Articles, Pension design, Regulation,
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14May

Pension Reforms in the EU since the Early 2000’s: Achievements and Challenges Ahead

By Giuseppe Carone & Per Eckefeldt (European Commission); Luigi Giamboni, Veli Laine & Stephanie Pamies Most EU Member States have carried out substantial pension reforms over the last decades in order to enhance fiscal sustainability, while maintaining adequate pension income. The intensity of pension reforms has been particularly strong since 2000. These reforms have been implemented through a wide range of measures that have substantially modified the pension system rules and parameters. One of the most important elements of pension...

May 14, 2017
Articles, Pension design, Regulation,
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14May

Contributory Retirement Saving Plans: Differences across Earnings Groups and Implications for Retirement Security

By Irena Dushi, Howard Iams & Christopher R. Tamborini (US Social Security Administration) This article examines how savings in defined contribution (DC) retirement plans vary across the earnings distribution. Specifically, the authors investigate the extent of an earnings gradient in access to, participation in, and levels of contribution to DC plans. Using a nationally representative sample of Survey of Income and Program Participation respondents to data from their W-2 tax records, the authors find that DC plan access, participation, and...

May 14, 2017
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08May

The Politics of Social Protection in Ghana: Policy Reform in a Competitive African Democracy (2000-2014)

By Eduard Grebe (Stellenbosch University) The Kufuor (New Patriotic Party) administration of 2000-2008 implemented substantial reforms of the contributory social insurance system (including the introduction of a national health insurance scheme and a new 'three tier' pensions system), and introduced a range of social assistance schemes targeted at the 'extreme poor'. This paper analyses the factors that drove policy reform and the broad cross-party consensus that emerged despite highly competitive elections. Electoral dynamics played a significant role, and this is...

May 8, 2017
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, ,
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08May

The Impact of Pensions, Transfers and Taxes on Child Poverty in Europe: The Role of Size, Pro-Poorness and Child Orientation

By Ron Diris (KU Leuven), Frank Vandenbroucke (University of Amsterdam) & Gerlinde Verbist (University of Antwerp) We assess the impact of redistributive policy on child poverty across 29 European welfare states, using EU SILC 2005–2012. We distinguish between spending on pensions, spending on other cash transfers and taxation. For each of these instruments of redistribution, we further distinguish three features: size, pro-poorness and targeting towards households with children. Pensions are generally neglected in analyses on child poverty, but are relevant...

May 8, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Regulation,
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08May

The Impact of Social Pensions on Intergenerational Relationships: Comparative Evidence from China

By Xi Chen (Yale), Karen Eggleston (Stanford University) & Ang Sun Renmin University of China) China launched a new rural pension scheme (hereafter NRPS) for rural residents in 2009, now covering almost all counties with over 400 million people enrolled. This implementation of the largest social pension program in the world offers a unique setting for studying the economics of intergenerational relationships during development, given the rapidity of China's population aging, traditions of filial piety and co-residence, decreasing number of children,...

May 8, 2017
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01May

Non-Contributory Pensions and Savings: Evidence from Argentina

By Martín González-Rozada & Hernán Ruffo (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) This paper examines the effects of Argentina's Plan de Inclusion Previsional (PIP), which changed the pension system in a way that generated a new noncontributory pillar, produced a huge expansion in pension coverage between 2005 and 2008 and a transfer of a vast amount of resources to households. Using a difference in differences methodology it is found that the PIP policy has reduced the incentives to work and to be...

May 1, 2017
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