August 2019

Tenure Choice, Portfolio Structure and Long-Term Care – Optimal Risk Management in Retirement

By Hans Fehr, Maurice Hofmann We study the interplay between tenure decisions, stock market investment and the public social security system. Housing equity not only serves a dual purpose as a consumption good and as an asset, but also provides insurance to buffer various risks in retirement. Our life cycle model captures these links in order to explain why homeownership in Germany is so low. Our simulation results indicate that the public long-term care as well as the pension...

July 2019

Retirement Security: Trends in Corporate Restructurings and Implications for Employee Pensions

By Charles A. Jeszeck, David Lehrer, Charles J Ford, Jessica Moscovitch, James Bennett, Lilia Chaidez, Michelle Munn, Jessica Orr, Cady Panetta, Rhiannon Patterson, Rachel Stoiko, Frank Todisco, Weigle Hannah, Adam Wendel Over the past 20 years, corporate restructurings, particularly mergers and acquisitions (M&A) tended to happen more frequently during periods of economic expansion. GAO's analysis found that from 1999 through 2018, M&A activity comprised the largest share of corporate restructurings. In terms of dollar value of completed deals, M&A...

The Future of Finance is Now: The Most Important Trends in Finance for the Coming Decade Have Already Started

By Jason Schenker The Future of Finance is Already HereIndustries are being disrupted by new and emerging technologies. The coming decade will bring an acceleration of technological innovation, adoption, and disruption. But finance has long been an industry at the forefront of technology adoption, which is why some of the most critical technological innovations and solutions for finance have already emerged. The Future of Finance is Now explores the most important innovations in finance technology (FinTech) as...

June 2019

Behavioral Finance and Decision-Making Models

By Tripti Tripathi, Manoj Kumar Dash, Gaurav Agrawal Behavioral finance challenges the traditional assumption that individuals are rational by focusing on the cognitive and emotional aspects of finance, which draws on psychology, sociology, and biology to investigate true financial behavior. The financial sector requires sound understanding of market dynamics and strategic issues to meet future challenges in the field. Behavioral Finance and Decision-Making Models seeks to examine behavioral biases and their impact on investment decisions...

The Future Shape of Insurance and Risk Management in the Cyber-Physical Space

By W. Jean Kwon For years, the insurance industry was essentially about mathematical quantification and financial transformation of physical risks. But our world has become more interconnected with the advent of the internet, blockchain etc.: as a consequence, cyber risk is expanding rapidly. Here, Prof. W. Jean Kwon looks at how the insurance industry will adapt to the “cyber-physical” world order. Source: SSRN

May 2019

International Dimensions of Sustainable Management: Latest Perspectives from Corporate Governance, Responsible Finance and Csr

By Rene Schmidpeter, Nicholas Capaldi, Samuel O Idowu, Anika Sturenberg Herrera This book provides a rich collection of essays discussing and showcasing the transformation of businesses around the world towards sustainability and responsibility. Based on a framework of global theoretical approaches, it presents practical examples and cases from a variety of industries, regions and corporate functions. It also highlights the latest insights on how corporations consider sustainability in the governance of their respective organization. Furthermore, the book features...

Selfies for Portugal- An innovative Pan European Retirement Solution

By Robert C. Merton, Arun Muralidhar, Rui Seybert P Ferreira With a rapidly aging population, Portugal faces some serious pension challenges including a Social Security system which is under pressure, and pension benefits gradually approaching levels that will require individuals to supplement Social Security with private savings. In addition, Portugal has a low rate of financial literacy and hence transferring the responsibility of retirement planning to the general population runs a major risk of many individuals retiring poor. While some...

April 2019

Lump-sum Pension Payments: Who Are the Winners and Losers?

By Olivia Mitchel The U.S. Treasury department’s move last month to allow private companies to pay lump-sum pension payments to retirees and beneficiaries, instead of monthly payments, is good news for companies that do not want to be saddled with long-term pension obligations – particularly for private sector employers who have underfunded pension plans.However, lump-sum pension payments may not work out well for retirees who opt for them. While a debate has ensued on the merits and risks of lump-sum...

February 2019

What Is Policy Space for Diaconal Institutions? Challenges from Pension Obligations

By Hans Morten Haugen (VID Specialized University) Norwegian non-profit institutions have provided health care and social services in accordance with contracts with various public authorities. These contracts had various specifications concerning pensions. The core message in the contracts was, however, that employees in non-profit institutions were required to be included in similar pension agreements as public employees. During the latter part of the 2000s, this was no longer an explicit requirement in new contracts, but neither the various public contractors,...

January 2019

Fintech: Latin America 2018: Growth and Consolidation

By Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); BID Invest; FinnovistaThis report is the second edition of the study “Fintech: Innovations You May Not Know were from Latin America and the Caribbean” (IDB, 2017), which offered a comprehensive view of the activity in and development of the Fintech industry in the region. The report describes the evolution and the progress achieved with respect to the measurement and analysis carried out in 2017, and examines new dimensions relevant to the ecosystem. The first...