February 2017

03Feb

Austerity, ageing and the financialisation of pensions policy in the UK

By Craig Berry This article offers a detailed analysis of the recent history of pensions policy in the United Kingdom, culminating in two apparent `revolutions' in policy now underway: the introduction of `automatic enrolment' into private pensions, and proposals for a new `single-tier' state pension. These reforms are considered exemplary of the `financialisation' of UK welfare provision -- typified in pensions policy by the notion that individuals must take personal responsibility for their own long-term financial security, and engage intimately...

February 3, 2017
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, System Sustainability,
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03Feb

The commitment value of funding pensions

By Jean Denis Garon This paper studies how funding public pensions can improve policy outcomes when short-sighted governments cannot commit. We focus on sustainable plans, where optimal nonlinear pensions are not reneged on by sequential governments. Funding pensions is a commitment mechanism. It implies lower contributions than does the second best policy, which reduces temptation to over-redistribute later and to misuse revealed private information. Funding may be preferable even if the population growth rate is higher than the rate of...

February 3, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Regulation, ,
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03Feb

Shrouded costs of government: The political economy of state and local public pensions

By Edward L. Glaeser, Giacomo A M Ponzetto Why do public-sector workers receive so much of their compensation in the form of pensions and other benefits? This paper presents a political economy model in which politicians compete for taxpayers' and government employees' votes by promising compensation packages, but some voters cannot evaluate every aspect of promised compensation. If pension packages are "shrouded," so that public-sector workers better understand their value than ordinary taxpayers, then compensation will be highly back-loaded. In...

February 3, 2017
Adequacy, Regulation, System Sustainability,
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03Feb

Taxing Pensions

By Pierre Pestieau and Helmuth Cremer There exists a wide variety of tax treatments of pensions across the world. And the reasons for such a range of regimes are not clear. This note reviews the general principles of pension taxes and analyses the theoretical foundations of why pension incomes ought to be taxed specifically. To do this, one has to distinguish between public and private pensions. The design of public pensions cannot be separated from the one of taxation. Regarding...

February 3, 2017
Regulation,
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03Feb

The Greek Pension Reform Strategy 2010–2015

By Georgios Symeonidis In 2010, Greece, under the pressure of an increasing public debt, was forced to resort to the Troika, which is the designation of the triumvirate which comprises the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Troika agreed to provide Greece with financial help, on special terms recorded in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Greek Government and the Troika. One of the most important reforms that are recorded...

February 3, 2017
Regulation,
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03Feb

Pension Risk and Risk Based Supervision in Defined Contribution Pension Funds

By Rodolph Heinz and Randle Tony The main goal of any pension system is to ensure that members receive an adequate pension income when they retire. Whilst traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans set out what that pension income will be in advance and then strive to deliver it, the growing number of defined contribution (DC) plans accumulates a sum of assets which can then be turned into a pension income on retirement. However, the amount of this retirement income...

February 3, 2017
Investing, Regulation
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03Feb

Pensions for Public-Sector Employees : Lessons from OECD Countries’ Experience

By Edward Whitehouse In 27 out of 34 OECD member countries, there is institutionally separate retirement-income provision for some or all public-sector workers. But the scope of these pension schemes varies significantly: from a modest top-up to the national pension arrangements (covering private-sector workers as well) to entirely independent retirement-income regimes. Average expenditure on these schemes amounts to about 1.5 percent of GDP, or nearly a quarter of total public pension spending. Public-sector pension reform is an issue of great...

February 3, 2017
Pension design, Regulation,
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03Feb

Social Reforms in China: 2016-2020

By Andoni Maiza and Ricardo Bustillo The need to evolve from an export-based economic model towards a different model where domestic consumption plays a larger role is what has driven the Chinese government to design new social policies to give households greater confidence and boost consumption levels. The 13th Five-Year Plan 2016-2020 includes measures to expand the coverage of the pension system, health insurance, and unemployment insurance, and also provides for a new raise to the minimum wage. However, there...

February 3, 2017
Regulation, System Sustainability
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03Feb

Constitutional Reform and Universal Pension Law

By Noemí Monroy Enriquez En México, en los próximos años, la tendencia demográfica se caracterizará por el incremento de la población adulta de 65 años o más, la cual, en su mayoría, no cuenta con algún ingreso para su subsistencia. El fenómeno del incremento de la población de edad avanzada no solamente es nacional; de acuerdo con el informe de Naciones Unidas, el crecimiento de la población adulta de 60 años y más se ha acelerado, lo que genera todo...

February 3, 2017
Adequacy, Regulation
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03Feb

Matching Contributions for Pensions

By Richard Hinz, Robert Holzmann, David Tuesta, Noriyuki Takayama Establishing robust, equitable, and effective social protection is essential to reducing poverty and boosting prosperity at all levels of development. The demographic transition that has already transformed most high-income societies will exert similar and growing pressures on others, reinforcing the role of pensions and savings for old age as a central pillar of social protection systems. Despite this increasing imperative, achieving full coverage and adequate benefits within a financially sustainable pension system...

February 3, 2017
Regulation,
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