March 2019

Global Microscope 2018: The Enabling Environment for Financial Inclusion

By Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) The 2018 Global Microscope provides a unique insight into the leading practices that governments and regulators are adopting to channel the digital revolution of financial services into greater levels of financial inclusion. It sets a model for an enabling environment for financial inclusion across five domains: 1. Government and Policy Support; 2. Stability and Integrity; 3. Products and Outlets; 4. Consumer Protection; and 5. Infrastructure. Developed through expert consultation, the five-part model framework represents the...

Millennial Money Mindset: How to Win Finances and Influence Pensions

By Neil Doig The rules have changed. The baby boomer’s financial plan was easy. Finish university debt free, waltz into a job for life, buy an affordable house and finish the last day of work with a handshake, a carriage clock and a guaranteed income for life. Millennials need a new plan. We have lived through the financial crash of 2008, many are scared of losing all their money in the stock market, are getting next to nothing from saving,...

Working while Studying: Employment Premium or Penalty for Youth in Benin?

By Senakpon F. A. Dedehouanou (KU Leuven), Luca Tiberti (Université Laval), Hilaire Houeninvo (University of Abomey-Calavi), Djohodo Inès Monwanou (National University of Agriculture (Benin)) Most youth in developing countries leave school with only a general academic education level, slowing down their transition to the labor market. We analyze whether work experience during school can help youth transition more easily to a first job in Benin. We used data from the 2014 School-to-Work Transition Survey (SWTS) and a multi-equation model to...

Reforming Social Security: The Challenge of Income Inequality

By David W. Rasmussen (Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy) 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...

Staying Put: Adapting the Places Instead of the People

By Susan Lanspery &‎ Joan Hyde Most existing housing offers a poor fit for older people and people with disabilities, and new construction adds less than 2 per cent to the housing each year. Ninety-nine percent of the housing that will be in use in the year 2000 exists today. The long-needed anthology "Staying Put: Adapting the Places Instead of the People" emphasizes the disabilities and abilities of environments instead of individuals. With contributions from leading authorities, it integrates a...

Understanding the Spatial Disparities and Vulnerability of Population Aging in China

By Yang Cheng (Beijing Normal University (BNU)), Siyao Gao (Beijing Normal University (BNU)), Shuai Li (Beijing Normal University (BNU)), Yuchao Zhang (Independent), Mark Rosenberg (Queen's University) Understanding the regional pattern of population aging in China enables rational policy making to address the challenges of inequity in social welfare and care resources among the east–central–west regions and rural–urban areas of China. This study uses census data in 2000 and 2010, and aging population ratios, annual increase rates, and spatial auto-correlation analysis...

February 2019

Household Savings in Central Eastern and Southeastern Europe: How Do Poorer Households Save?

By Elisabeth Beckmann (Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB)) Based on a survey of households in 10 Central Eastern European and Western Balkan countries, this paper presents new and unique evidence on which households have savings and how they save. The paper shows that the percentage of savers is low, and savings are frequently informal. Formal savings are dominated by bank savings, and participation in contractual and capital market savings is very low in comparison to high-income countries. Poor households are significantly less...

The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty

By Clayton M. Christensen,‎ Efosa Ojomo,‎ Karen Dillon Clayton M. Christensen, the author of such business classics as The Innovator’s Dilemma and the New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life, and co-authors Efosa Ojomo and Karen Dillon reveal why so many investments in economic development fail to generate sustainable prosperity, and offers a groundbreaking solution for true and lasting change.Global poverty is one of the world’s most vexing problems. For decades, we’ve assumed smart, well-intentioned people will eventually be able to change the...

Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy

By Alexandrea J. Ravenelle Choose your hours, choose your work, be your own boss, control your own income. Welcome to the sharing economy, a nebulous collection of online platforms and apps that promise to transcend capitalism. Supporters argue that the gig economy will reverse economic inequality, enhance worker rights, and bring entrepreneurship to the masses. But does it?In Hustle and Gig, Alexandrea J. Ravenelle shares the personal stories of nearly eighty predominantly millennial workers from Airbnb, Uber, TaskRabbit, and Kitchensurfing. Their...

Globalisation,Human Security and Social Inclusion

By Olivia Joseph Aluko The groundwork for this volume was laid during a presentation I gave titled ‘Migration as a security threat’ at the 4th Diaspora International Conference organised by the World Association of Sustainable development (WASD) in the UK. Thus, this work is a contribution to a large body of literature on migration studies throughout the whole world. The process of writing this book has come at a time when a spotlight has been placed on immigration as a growing...