December 2019
06Dec

Exploring Wealth Inequality

By Cato Institute, Ryan Bourne, Chris Edwards Many political leaders and pundits consider wealth inequality to be a major economic and social problem. They complain about a shift of wealth to the top at everyone else’s expense and about plutocrats dominating policymaking in Washington. Is wealth inequality the crisis that some people believe? This study examines six aspects of wealth inequality and discusses the evidence for the claims being made. Section 1 describes how wealth inequality has risen in...

December 6, 2019
Adequacy, Articles, System Sustainability,
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November 2019

29Nov

The Effect of Aging on the Age-wage Profile

By Toshikatsu Inoue Despite its importance, many macroeconomic models do not capture the changes in the age-wage profile over time. The flattening of the age-wage profile in Japan and the relative increase in the aging workforce suggests the existence of demand law in relative labor inputs and wages of each age, which is abstracted from the standard macroeconomic model. In this study, we build a model using the aggregate production function that creates a downward slope labor demand curve....

November 29, 2019
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, , ,
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29Nov

How Much Should the Poor Save for Retirement? Data and Simulations on Retirement Income Adequacy Among Low-Earning Households

By Andrew G. Biggs Both policymakers and members of the public are concerned regarding the adequacy of U.S. households’ retirement savings. In response, proposals have been made to expand Social Security benefits and to establish state government-run retirement plans for private sector employees. In both cases, the largest effects would be on low-earning households, who currently have low rates of retirement plan coverage and participation and who rely heavily upon Social Security benefits in retirement. However, there has been...

November 29, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Savings, , , ,
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29Nov

Digitization and Automation: Firm Investment and Labor Outcomes

By Michał Zator AI, automation and other digital technologies are thought to be transforming the economy, but the empirical evidence on their diffusion and impact is scarce. This paper uses new firm-level administrative data from Germany to analyze causes and consequences of firms' investment in the new technology - digitization and automation. Main results characterize relationship of technology and labor: (1) investment in technology is typically increased by labor scarcity; (2) new technologies typically reduce employment. Both results hide...

November 29, 2019
Articles, Labor Market, ,
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28Nov

Pensions at a Glance 2019

By OECD The 2019 edition of Pensions at a Glance highlights the pension reforms undertaken by OECD countries over the last two years. Moreover, two special chapters focus on non-standard work and pensions in OECD countries, take stock of different approaches to organising pensions for non-standard workers in the OECD, discuss why non-standard work raises pension issues and suggest how pension settings could be improved. This edition also updates information on the key features of pension provision in OECD countries and...

November 28, 2019
Aging, Articles, Books, Labor Market, Pension design, Reports, Slider-Left, Sustainability, ,
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22Nov

How Would 401(K) ‘Rothification’ Alter Saving, Retirement Security, and Inequality?

By Vanya Horneff, Raimond Maurer, Olivia S. Mitchell The US has long incentivized retirement saving in 401(k) and similar retirement accounts by permitting workers to defer taxes on contributions, levying them instead when retirees withdraw funds in retirement. This paper develops a dynamic life cycle model to show how and whether ‘Rothification’ – that is, taxing 401(k) contributions rather than payouts – would alter household saving, investment, and Social Security claiming patterns. We show that these changes differ importantly...

November 22, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Savings, ,
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22Nov

Calibrating Gompertz in Reverse: Mortality-adjusted (Biological) Ages around the World

By Moshe A. Milevsky This paper develops a statistical and methodological framework for inverting the Gompertz-Makeham (GM) law of mortality for heterogenous populations in a manner consistent with a compensation law of mortality (CLaM), to formally define a global mortality-adjusted (biological) age. It implements and calibrates this framework using rates from the Human Mortality Database (HMD) to illustrate its salience and applicability. Among other things, this paper demonstrates that when properly benchmarked, the global mortality-adjusted (biological) age of a...

November 22, 2019
Aging, Articles, ,
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22Nov

Fiscal Incidence in Moldova: A Commitment to Equity Analysis

By Alexandru Cojocaru, Mikhail Matytsin, Valeriu Prohnitchi This paper uses methods developed by the Commitment to Equity Institute and data from the Household Budget Survey to assess the effects of government taxation and social spending on poverty and inequality in Moldova. The paper presents the first detailed distributional analysis of the tax and expenditure sides of the fiscal system, examining in particular the contribution of different taxes and transfers to poverty and inequality reduction in Moldova, as well as...

November 22, 2019
Adequacy, Articles, Pension design, , , ,
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15Nov

How Best to Annuitize Defined Contribution Assets?

Alicia H. Munnell, Gal Wettstein, Wenliang Hou Unlike defined benefit pensions that provide participants with steady benefits for as long as they live, 401(k) plans and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) provide little guidance on how to turn accumulated assets into income. As a result, retirees have to decide how much to withdraw each year and face the risk of either spending too quickly and outliving their resources or spending too conservatively and consuming too little. Surveys of individuals’ plans...

November 15, 2019
Articles, Investing, Savings,
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15Nov

Fiscal Incidence in Moldova: A Commitment to Equity Analysis

By Alexandru Cojocaru, Mikhail Matytsin, Valeriu Prohnitchi T his paper uses methods developed by the Commitment to Equity Institute and data from the Household Budget Survey to assess the effects of government taxation and social spending on poverty and inequality in Moldova. The paper presents the first detailed distributional analysis of the tax and expenditure sides of the fiscal system, examining in particular the contribution of different taxes and transfers to poverty and inequality reduction in Moldova, as well as...

November 15, 2019
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