June 2021

How Does Social Security Reform Indecision Affect Younger Cohorts?

By John B. Shoven, Sita Slavov, John G. Watson The Social Security trust fund will be exhausted in the early 2030s. The U.S. government will need to make a choice about how to address the impending trust fund exhaustion, but it is unclear what it will choose to do. This indecision leaves young and middle-aged workers not knowing whether they will face Social Security benefit cuts, payroll tax increases, or an increase in the full retirement age. This uncertainty about...

Is informality a barrier to economic growth in Uganda? Empirical analysis

By Stephen Esaku We apply autoregressive distributed lag modeling approach to investigate the short- and long-run relationship between economic growth and informality in Uganda. We use annual time series data, covering the period from 1991 to 2017. We find evidence of short- and long-run relationship between economic growth and informality. The results indicate that an increase in informality significantly reduces the rate of economic growth in both the long- and short-run. This evidence seems to indicate that in low income...

Risk-Adjusted Valuation in the Worker’s Economic Decision Making

By Hangsuck Lee, Doojin Ryu, Jihoon Son We suggest an overlapping generations model incorporating the risk-adjusted valuation in a worker’s decision problem. The risk-adjusted probabilities allow risk-averse workers to place more weight on cash flows upon retirement when assessing lifetime income at present value. The risk-adjusted valuation is consistently applied to any non-financial asset, allowing them to be evaluated collectively or separately. We predict capital returns under demographic structure, consumption preference, and social security policy changes. Source: SSRN 189 views

Prefunded Pension Systems: Recent Developments

By Kristian Peter Niemietz From the mid-1990s to the onset of the financial crisis, prefunded pension systems, based on individual retirement savings accounts, were spreading around the world. The UK was initially a world leader in this, due to the system of contracting out, which had allowed people to opt out of part of the state pension scheme and save for their own pension instead. Since 2008, there has been a global U-turn. Private pension systems are now in retreat...

Central Falls’ Bankruptcy and the Principle of Shared Pain

By James Tatum The small city of Central Falls, Rhode Island filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2011, with five other cities. The case could have easily been overshadowed by the insolvency of other sizable jurisdictions. Instead, Central Falls’ case is particular in both the treatment of bondholders and pensioners – one class of creditors was completely protected, while the other suffered deep cuts. The purpose of this article is to examine the method used to distribute losses in Central...

Strategy for the Mexican Pension System

By Gabriel Martinez The concepts of benefit adequacy and sustainability are used to lead the discussion to-wards holistic pension reform. The required strategic elements are presented, the reforms underpinning the existing pension system are reviewed, and the evolution of the main variables in a set of reference countries is detailed. The review to other countries serves to identify key points of discussion, lessons and innovative elements. Essential reform proposals are presented. Source: SSRN 200 views

May 2021

Trends in Labor Supply of Older Men and the Role of Social Security

By Zhixiu Yu The labor supply of older men increased from the 1930s to the 1950s cohort. I estimate a structural model that fits the participation and hours worked by the 1930s cohort well. The observed policy changes in normal retirement age, the earnings test, and delayed retirement credits explain 73.4% and 88.7% of the observed rises in labor force participation and hours worked by the 1950s cohort. Additional policy experiments suggest that postponing retirement age have little effect on...

Differences and Similarities in Patterns of Society Ageing in the European Union

By Denisa Kočanová, Viliam Kováč, Jan Buleca Population ageing is a demographic problem, which emphasises the need to be interested in the lives of the most vulnerable group–the elderly. The paper investigates the ageing process and similarity of selected countries in the European Union. The EU Member States were assessed and assigned to appropriate clusters according to several indicators related to the areas that affect the lives of the elderlies, namely health status, labour market conditions, and financial security. We...

Population and Labor Dynamics in Large Informal Markets: Implications for Pension Systems with Evidence from Ecuador

By Margarita Velín-Fárez This paper reviews Ecuador’s population structure and labor market dynamics with a focus on the causes of inequality, particularly among older adults receiving contributory pensions. This serves as a basis for characterizing the main restrictions that the Ecuadorian pension system must address. This analysis is valuable for three key reasons. First, the population structure of many less developed countries is converging toward that of developed countries, with older age groups increasing in proportion. Second, Ecuador is among...

How Regulators Use Sex-Disaggregated Data and RegTech to Enhance Financial Inclusion

By Toronto Centre Financial inclusion of women brings disproportionate benefits to their families and to economic development, yet in many countries an access-to-finance gender gap remains. Sex-disaggregated data (SDD) is key to monitoring and addressing this problem. This study examines the role that financial services regulators can play in efforts to address financial inclusion of women: how they are using, or could use, SDD to enhance women’s access to and use of financial products and services of the right quality that...