October 2018

The Experts’ War on Poverty: Social Research and the Welfare Agenda in Postwar America (American Institutions and Society)

By Romain D. Huret In the critically acclaimed La Fin de la Pauverté, Romain D. Huret identifies a network of experts who were dedicated to the post-World War II battle against poverty in the United States. John Angell’s translation of Huret’s work brings to light for an English-speaking audience this critical set of intellectuals working in federal government, academic institutions, and think tanks. Their efforts to create a policy bureaucracy to support federal socio-economic action spanned from the last days...

Responsible Investing: An Introduction to Environmental, Social, and Governance Investments

By Matthew W. Sherwood,‎ Julia Pollard This textbook provides the first holistic resource on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing for undergraduate and graduate programs. It provides a thorough background and history of ESG investing, as well as cutting-edge industry developments, in a way that introduces the reader to the rapidly developing field of responsible investing. Read the complete book here

The Creation and Benchmarking of a Green Municipal Bond Index

By Candace Partridge (University College London - QASER Laboratory), Francesca Medda (University College London - QASER Laboratory) As the green bond market grows, many are wondering if there is a pricing difference between green bonds and conventional bonds. In order to explore these ideas, we created bond indices specific to the green-labelled and climate-aligned municipal bond market, primarily to test the competitiveness of the green sector of the muni bond market against the overall muni bond market. We used the...

Retirement Savings Inequality: Different Effects of Earnings Shocks, Portfolio Selections, and Employer Contributions by Worker Earnings Level

By Joelle Saad-Lessler (The New School for Social Research), Teresa Ghilarducci (Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA); The New School for Social Research), Gayle Reznik (U.S. Social Security Administration) Changes in accumulated retirement savings, particularly in employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) plan balances, differ by worker’s earnings levels. Earnings shocks, portfolio diversification, and employer contributions to worker’s DC plans affect retirement savings for lower earners more than for higher earners. The authors match Survey of Income and Program Participation data...

The Impact of Investment on Climate Change: The Case Study of Cambodia

By Phon Sophat (Thammasat University - Faculty of Economics; National Bank of Cambodia) Climate change has been mentioned as priority issues which government try to handle it with carefulness and suitability with growth and FDIs. The mainstreaming climate change might be converted into sub-national planning scale extremely identified. This include of the Strategic Framework for both centralization and decentralisation under the National Program for Sub National Democratic Development, So the development of a guideline for mainstreaming climate change into sub-national...

‘Deeply concerning’: Canada pension fund invests in US immigration detention firms

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board holds $5.9m of stock in two companies profiting from Trump’s ‘zero-tolerance’ Mexico border policy Canadian politicians have expressed alarm that one of Canada’s biggest pension investment funds has increased holdings in two US private companies that run American prisons and incarcerate the majority of detained immigrants. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which manages $366.6bn in pension funds on behalf of some 20 million Canadian retirees, holds US$5.9m of stock in Geo Group and...

Kenya. Banks, pension schemes top finance sector sources for real estate funding

Funding options in Real Estate (Sh billion) Banks’ credit to the real estate grew by 30.82 percent in 2017 compared with 18.33 percent growth rate for pension funds. Bank loans and retirees’ savings remained the largest finance sector source of funds for property developers and homebuyers in 2017, fresh statistics show, amid declining average house sales and rent prices. Commercial banks increased their investment in real estate by Sh87.56 billion last year, the highest allocation in a single year despite the September...

Canada pension fund to lift China investment

CPPIB plans to increase funding across country as it eyes long-term market opportunities from growing middle-income group, aging population By 2025, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board plans to have 20 percent of its estimated C$800 billion ($612 billion) assets invested in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, said Mark Machin, president and CEO of CPPIB. "It's a sensible thing to increase our supply to this market. We are building expertise, and we think valuation is not perfect in this...

Chinese pension system covers 925 million people

More than 925 million people are covered by the pension system in China, according to an article published by the country's top social security organ in the Qiushi Journal, a bi-monthly periodical run by the CPC Central Committee. The number is nearly nine times that of 1992. The pension funds for enterprise retirees have been rising for 14 consecutive years, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. In addition, more than 1.35 billion people or nearly all the...

IMF on Greece: 3.5 pct Primary Surplus, No Pension Cuts Postponement

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its renewed Fiscal Monitor for October. There, the fund revised Greece’s 2019 growth rate upwards and accepted that it made a mistake regarding the last year’s Greek primary surplus. The IMF had predicted that Greece would achieve a 3.7 percent primary surplus, while now it acknowledges that the country’s surplus reached 4.2 percent. In addition to this, the IMF agrees with the official projections of the Greek authorities and says that Greece will be able to...