February 2019

02Feb

Using Behavioral Science to Increase Retirement Savings in Mexico A look at what we have learned over three years

By Andrew Fertig, Alissa Fishbane, Jaclyn Lefkowitz Acknowledgements We’ve been fortunate to work with many individuals who made this report possible. We are enormously grateful to MetLife Foundation for its support and partnership throughout our efforts, and especially to Evelyn Stark, Alison Jarrett, Gabriela Zapata, and Nalleli Garcia Gutierrez. We’d like to thank our team members Marcela Cheng Oviedo, David Munguía Gómez, and Juan David Robalino for their excellent research and design contributions as well as their dedication...

February 2, 2019
Books, Labor Market, Pension design, Savings, , ,
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January 2019

27Jan

China's High Savings: Drivers, Prospects, and Policies

By Longmei Zhang (International Monetary Fund), Ray Brooks (International Monetary Fund   - Asia and Pacific Department), Ding Ding (International Monetary Fund), Haiyan Ding (International Monetary Fund), Hui He (International Monetary Fund), Jing Lu (International Monetary Fund), Rui Mano (International Monetary Fund) China's high national savings rate-one of the highest in the world-is at the heart of its external/internal imbalances. High savings finance elevated investment when held domestically, or lead to large external imbalances when they flow abroad. Today, high savings mostly emanate from...

January 27, 2019
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Savings, ,
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27Jan

China’s High Savings: Drivers, Prospects, and Policies

By Longmei Zhang (International Monetary Fund), Ray Brooks (International Monetary Fund   - Asia and Pacific Department), Ding Ding (International Monetary Fund), Haiyan Ding (International Monetary Fund), Hui He (International Monetary Fund), Jing Lu (International Monetary Fund), Rui Mano (International Monetary Fund) China's high national savings rate-one of the highest in the world-is at the heart of its external/internal imbalances. High savings finance elevated investment when held domestically, or lead to large external imbalances when they flow abroad. Today, high savings mostly emanate from...

January 27, 2019
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Savings, ,
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19Jan

Migration, Remittances and Brexit: European Labor Market Integration and Its Effects on Inequality and Convergence

By Pawel Langer (New York University) & Laszlo Tetenyi (New York University) The increase in migration from Eastern to Western Europe after their accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004 resulted in a large increase in remittances to New Member States (NMS) and were comparable in size to FDI or EU funds. This paper adds to the literature by analyzing the impact of remittances and migration jointly, rather than separately, on the integration of EU economies and their implications...

January 19, 2019
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19Jan

Retirement Savings Adequacy in U.S. Defined Contribution Plans

By Francisco Gomes (London Business School), Kenton Hoyem (Financial Engines, Inc.), Wei-Yin Hu (Financial Engines, Inc.), Enrichetta Ravina (Kellogg School of Management) We evaluate retirement savings adequacy in the U.S. using a large panel dataset comprising the contribution rates, salary, tenure, account value, plan features and asset allocations of more than 300 thousand US workers with a 401(k) account. Our simulations account for medical expenditure, longevity, and investment risks, and realistically model the likelihood of withdrawals due to hardship, job...

January 19, 2019
Adequacy, Articles, Pension design, Savings, Slider-Left, ,
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December 2018

16Dec

Informing Retirement Savings Decisions: A Field Experiment on Supplemental Plans

By Robert L. Clark (North Carolina State University - Poole College of Management), Robert G. Hammond (North Carolina State University), Melinda Sandler Morrill (North Carolina State University - Department of Economics), Christelle Khalaf (North Carolina State University) Although supplemental saving plans can be an important part of an individual's financial security in retirement, contribution rates remain low, particularly among those with lower salaries and less education. We report findings from an intervention that provided information on key aspects of the...

December 16, 2018
Articles, News, Pension design, Savings, Slider, Slider-Left, , , ,
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16Dec

Annuity Pricing In Public Pension Plans: Importance Of Interest Rates

By Nino Abashidze, Robert L. Clark, Beth Ritter, David Vanderweide There is little systematic information on the distribution options in public sector retirement plans and how annuity options are priced relative to the standard single life annuity. This study examines the distribution options of 85 large public retirement plans covering general state employees, teachers, and local government employees. An important component of the analysis is the construction of a data set presenting the annuity options offered by each of these plans and how the...

December 16, 2018
Articles, Investing, Pension design, Savings, ,
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11Dec

Collecting and Transferring Pension Contributions

Collecting social security contributions is an important operational issue in all types of pension system. Many regimes are plagued by poor compliance and weak, inefficient administration. Some countries have tried to introduce an automatic incentive to contribute by moving systems closer to ‘actuarial fairness’, where pension benefits are more strictly related to individual contributions. Examples include the systems of individual accounts introduced in a range of countries in Latin America and Eastern Europe. But in these regimes, collecting and...

December 11, 2018
Articles, Regulation, Savings, Supervision, , ,
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03Dec

Downhill from Here: Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality

By Katherine S Newman As millions of Baby Boomers reach their golden years, the state of retirement in America is little short of a disaster. Nearly half the households with people aged 55 and older have no retirement savings at all. The real estate crash wiped out much of the home equity that millions were counting on to support their retirement. And the typical Social Security check covers less than 40% of pre-retirement wages--a number projected to drop to under...

December 3, 2018
Books, Pension design, Savings, ,
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November 2018

02Nov

Retirement Savings of the Hip Generation: A Study of Retirement Preparation among Individuals in Their Fifties

By M. Kabir Hassan (University of New Orleans - College of Business Administration - Department of Economics and Finance), Shari Lawrence (University of New Orleans - College of Business Administration - Department of Economics and Finance) Longer retirement periods coupled with the inadequacy of the Social Security system, low personal savings rates, and a decreasing trend in the prevalence of defined benefit retirement plans threaten to put a financial strain on individuals approaching retirement. To that end, we investigate retirement...

November 2, 2018
Articles, Savings, ,
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