February 2026
27Feb

The modality of pension information matters: The effects of visualization and interactivity

By Kristjan Pulk, Kristian Pentus, Leonore Riitsalu, Leo Daniel Sipria, Robin Talisaar & Ene Tubelt A significant barrier to pension engagement is a lack of awareness about the pension system and contribution options. Pension information is often presented as complicated text, which can deter engagement. We test how different modalities of visual and interactive pension communication affect individuals’ subjective pension knowledge, assessment of pension sufficiency, information search, and pension decision intentions. We do so by conducting two experiments: an online experiment...

February 27, 2026
Articles, Pension design,
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27Feb

Fairness Views, Pension Benefits, and Heterogeneity in Life Expectancy

By Maria Chaykina Notional Defined Contribution (NDC) pension schemes convert accumulated pension wealth into an annuity, based on an average life expectancy at retirement. When longevity differs across social groups, a single conversion factor implies systematic transfers from shorter-lived to longer-lived individuals. This motivates proposals to differentiate benefits by socio-demographic characteristics related to life expectancy. We study whether such differentiation is perceived as fair using a survey experiment involving 3,004 Italian residents aged 18-66. Respondents completed an incentivised allocation task...

February 27, 2026
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20Feb

Retirement Under Policy Uncertainty

By Piera Bello, Vincenzo Galasso & Alessandro Izzo This paper examines how policy uncertainty influences retirement decisions. We develop a simple model in which individuals face a one-time choice between immediate retirement and continued employment until the statutory retirement age. In the absence of policy uncertainty, retirement decisions depend solely on the standard income–leisure trade-off. When future pension reforms are uncertain, however, individuals also take into account the perceived risk of increases in the retirement age or reductions in benefit...

February 20, 2026
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06Feb

Retirement Survey & Insights Report 2025. New Economics of Retirement: New Solutions Provide a Ray of Hope

By Goldman Sachs In our annual Retirement Survey & Insights Report, we are pleased to present findings that may challenge conventional wisdom about retirement preparedness in America. While many acknowledge the looming retirement crisis, the traditional advice to simply save more may fail to account for the complex and evolving realities faced by millions of Americans. This year’s report introduces the "new economics of retirement,” as we grapple with the question “does the retirement math still work?” The report illustrates how rising costs...

February 6, 2026
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06Feb

Public Pensions and the Strategic Timing of Formal Employment

  By Diego Vera Cossio, Mariano Bosch, Jonathan M. Leganza, Tatiana Mojica & María Laura Oliveri We study how public pensions impact lifecycle labor supply decisions. Our analysis centers on pension eligibility rules in Ecuador. We first use administrative data to document and unpack retirement spikes at eligibility ages. Next, we use survey data and regression discontinuity to investigate whether eligibility rules influence earlier-inlife decisions about when to work formally versus informally. We find discontinuous increases in transitions to formal employment...

February 6, 2026
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January 2026
09Jan

Pension Saving in a Gendered Lifecourse

By Hayley James Despite automatic enrolment in work pension schemes, private saving for pensions in the UK is relatively low, with most people under-pensioned in later life and reliant on the state pension. In this book, Hayley James shows that equally significant is that women save far less for old age than men. Indeed, her detailed research reveals the ways in which pension saving, as an everyday practice of finance, is shaped by gender and how this evolves over the...

January 9, 2026
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November 2025
21Nov

How to Understand Pension Systems and Social Security? The ABCs of Pensions in Latin America and the Caribbean

By Waldo Andres Tapia Troncoso & Daniel Gamboa Rinckoar Pension systems are fundamental pillars of both present and future well-being for populations in any society. But what exactly are they, and how do they work in Latin America and the Caribbean? In this article, we break down the "ABCs"—the essential basics you need to understand pension systems in the region. We also provide a guide to their structure, how they function, and the challenges they face in the Latin American and...

November 21, 2025
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14Nov

Public Pensions and Private Savings

By Esteban García-Miralles & Jonathan M. Leganza How does the provision of public pension benefits impact private savings? We answer this question in the context of a Danish reform that increased social security eligibility ages. Using administrative data and a regression discontinuity design, we identify the causal effects of the policy on savings throughout the financial portfolio. We find increases in contributions to personal and employer-sponsored retirement accounts when delayed benefit eligibility induces extended employment. We argue that inertia—the continuation...

November 14, 2025
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October 2025
17Oct

What could effective pensions engagement look like?

By Pensions Policy Institute This report is primarily focused on the Defined Contribution (DC) landscape, in which engagement and active choice play a greater role, in comparison to Defined Benefit (DB). DC provides an increasing proportion of UK pension provision, with private sector DB provision in decline. As a result, DC savers will make up the majority of future retirees, and even among those with DB entitlement, many will also have some DC savings as a result of increased job...

October 17, 2025
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17Oct

Research and analysis. Lessons on pensions engagement

By Department for Work & Pensions This report summarises research exploring consumer engagement and ways to increase public engagement with private pensions in the UK. It brings together findings from a rapid review of publicly available literature with intelligence from 6 expert interviews across the UK, Western Europe and Israel. This provides new insight and understanding into some of the factors influencing pensions engagement. The research highlights areas for further research and could be expanded in the future by seeking...

October 17, 2025
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