July 2021
08Jul

The Role of Emergency Savings in Family Financial Security Barriers to Saving and Policy Opportunities

By The PEW Charitable Trust The first two briefs in this research series on emergency savings detailed responses to The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Survey of American Family Finances, a nationally representative survey of 7,845 households, and demonstrated that many households are at risk of financial shocks, that these shocks often disrupt and derail their finances, and that the savings most have on hand are probably insufficient for the challenges they might face. Pew’s research also has highlighted that although Americans believe robust emergency reserves...

July 8, 2021
Books, Savings,
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02Jul

Pension Incentives and Labor Supply: Evidence from the Introduction of Universal Old-Age Assistance in the UK

By Matthias Giesecke, Philipp Jaeger We study the labor supply implications of the Old-Age Pension Act (OPA) of 1908, which, for the first time, provided pensions to older people in the UK. Using recently released census data covering the entire population, we exploit variation at the newly created age-based eligibility threshold. Our results show a considerable and abrupt decline in labor force participation of 6.0 percentage points (13%) when older workers reach the eligibility age of 70. To mitigate the...

July 2, 2021
Articles, Investment, Savings,
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June 2021
24Jun

Pension Incentives and Labor Supply: Evidence from the Introduction of Universal Old-Age Assistance in the UK

By Matthias Giesecke, Philipp Jaeger We study the labor supply implications of the Old-Age Pension Act (OPA) of 1908, which, for the first time, provided pensions to older people in the UK. Using recently released census data covering the entire population, we exploit variation at the newly created age-based eligibility threshold. Our results show a considerable and abrupt decline in labor force participation of 6.0 percentage points (13%) when older workers reach the eligibility age of 70. To mitigate the...

June 24, 2021
Articles, Pension design, ,
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May 2021
19May

UK. Regulators ask industry for help on improving pension saving

The City watchdog and the Pensions Regulator have teamed up to investigate how people make decisions about their pension at key points throughout their working lives, in order to better support savers through future regulation. Read also UK. TPR sets three priorities in its new corporate plan The regulators today (May 18) launched a call for input from the pension industry on what influences consumers when saving into a pension and how they can be better supported to improve their pension...

May 19, 2021
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05May

UK. FCA proposes Pension Wise nudge for DC savers

In a consultation today, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today proposed that providers will need to go further than the current signposting in a bid to improve take-up of the free guidance service. Consumers would see appointments made for them, if requested, although they will not be mandatory after MPs on several occasions voted against the idea, believing it could be seen as a tick-box exercise, as opposed to a beneficial part of the process. Upon deciding, in principle, how to...

May 5, 2021
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January 2021

14Jan

How Poor Bangladeshi Households Behave Regarding Access to Commitment Savings Products

By Carolina Laureti, Mélanie Volral Access to commitment savings products is known to increase poor households’ savings. In this paper we analyze the process through which households change their savings behavior, by exploiting a unique dataset released by SafeSave, a Bangladeshi microfinance institution that launched the Long Term Savings commitment product in 2009. First, we find that households increase their savings a few months before they open the commitment product. Then, distinguishing early takers (who take up the commitment...

January 14, 2021
Articles, Savings, ,
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December 2020

23Dec

Financial Incentives and Heterogeneity in Retirement Behavior An Empirical Analysis Based on SHARE-RV Data

By Nicolas Goll, Felizia Hanemann Over the past few decades, different reforms have come into force, which aim at keeping older workers in the labor market longer. Broad literature to date has investigated reform effects for the average worker. Evidence on the heterogeneous reform effects on different groups is to date however relatively sparse. We therefore evaluate the 1992 pension reform in Germany, which gradually introduced actuarial deductions for early retirement between 1997 and 2004. We investigate whether individuals...

December 23, 2020
Articles, Labor Market, , ,
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18Dec

A Course in Behavioral Economics

By Erik Angner A concise text that introduces students to behavioural economics by comparing and contrasting its theories and models with those of mainstream economics. Full of examples, exercises and problems to engage students and encourage learning and understanding. Get the book here

December 18, 2020
Books, Innovation,
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September 2020

10Sep

Spanish Government looking at incentives for delaying retirement

The Spanish Government is looking at providing incentives for those who carry on working after the age of 65 while taking steps to stop high earners from taking early retirement. Read also Greece.Pay as you go for auxiliary pensions In his appearance on Wednesday before the Toledo Pact parliamentary commission, Inclusion and Social Security minister Jose Luis Escriva said his department’s intention is to encourage people to delay their retirement. through a redesign of the extra payments for those who...

September 10, 2020
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July 2020

30Jul

How much to save? decision costs and retirement plan participation

By Jacob Goldin, Tatiana Homonoff, Richard W. Patterson, William L. Skimmyhorn Deciding how much to save for retirement can be complicated. Drawing on a field experiment conducted with the Department of Defense, we study whether such complexity depresses participation in an employer-sponsored retirement saving plan. We find that simplifying one dimension of the enrollment decision, by highlighting a potential rate at which non-participants might contribute, increases participation in the plan. Similar communications that did not include a highlighted rate...

July 30, 2020
Articles, Pension design, Savings,
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