November 2024
08Nov

Real-World Shocks and Retirement System Resiliency

By Olivia S. Mitchell, John Sabelhaus & Stephen P. Utkus Growing awareness of real-world shocks including market downturns, health surprises, and labor market readjustment is calling into question the ability of global retirement systems to remain healthy and sustain future retirees. Financial and labor market stresses are shaping how older workers fare as they head into retirement, and how younger workers must prepare financially for their futures. These shocks come on top of long-standing concerns surrounding rising longevity, along with...

November 8, 2024
Books, Books, Reports, System Characterization, , , , , ,
Read more...
08Nov

A ‘Mandatory’ Pension Scheme? Late-Stage Dropouts from the National Pension System in South Korea

By Jongseok Oh, Seho Son & Kun Lee In this study, we investigate the patterns of individuals dropping out of the National Pension System, a mandatory public pension scheme in South Korea with a generous and redistributive benefit structure. We analyze administrative pension insurance data on individuals eligible for a lump-sum refund of lifetime accrued contributions at the age of 60 due to insufficient contribution records. We employ a set of linear probability models with region-fixed effects and within-between-region effects...

November 8, 2024
Articles, System Characterization, , ,
Read more...

October 2024
02Oct

US. Most older adults face ageism, and it’s taking a toll on their mental health

Discrimination against older people has become a pervasive part of American culture. Think birthday cards declaring someone "over the hill" and ads for "anti-aging" cosmetics. Most older adults say they experience ageism daily, according to a 2019 survey of more than 2,000 people between 50 and 80 conducted by the University of Michigan. Ageism, which includes stereotyping and discrimination based on age, is one of the most common forms of prejudice. A 2021 report from the World Health Organization found at least...

October 2, 2024
News, , ,
Read more...

September 2024
18Sep

Why China’s decision to extend the retirement age will not address fairness and sustainability issues

For many working Chinese, particularly those born in the 1980s and 1990s, Beijing’s decision to raise the retirement age by three years brings a sense of loss and betrayal. It means they have to work longer and pay more to get less from a major social contract. An internet meme that went viral reflected Chinese millennials’ frustration over the government’s flip-flop in birth and pension policies: “When I was born they said there were too many; when I gave birth...

September 18, 2024
News, ,
Read more...

August 2024
22Aug

US. Reduction in Pension Benefits Leads to Wider Income Inequality, Study Finds

The continuing decline of the number of defined benefit pension participants in the U.S. is widening America’s income equality gap, which in turn is stunting economic growth, according to a recent study from the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems. The study also found that public policies aimed at cutting public costs by reducing pension benefits or switching to defined contribution plans may actually increase the need for public spending due to “the dynamic interrelationship between pension reforms, income inequality, the...

August 22, 2024
News, , ,
Read more...

July 2024
31Jul

Sexual Orientation and Financial Well-Being in the United States

By Christopher S. Carpenter, Kabir Dasgupta, Zofsha Merchant & Alexander Plum We study the relationship between financial well-being and sexual orientation in the United States using Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) data for 2019-2022. We document that people who are lesbian, gay, and bisexual (or LGB) have significantly more difficulty managing financially than similarly situated heterosexual individuals—and this pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic. Differences are found across a broad array of current and future financial well-being outcomes, including retirement...

July 31, 2024
Articles, Pension design, , ,
Read more...
12Jul

Career Expectations and Outcomes: Evidence (on Gender Gaps) from the Economics Job Market

By Brooke Helppie McFall, Eric D. Parolin & Basit Zafar This paper investigates gender gaps in long-term career expectations and outcomes of PhD candidates in economics. For this purpose, we match rich survey data on PhD candidates (from the 2008-2010 job market cohorts) to public data on job histories and publication records through 2022. We document four novel empirical facts: (1) there is a robust gender gap in career expectations, with females about 10 percentage points less likely to ex-ante expect to get...

July 12, 2024
Articles, Labor Market, , , ,
Read more...

June 2024
28Jun

Hidden Figures: LGBT Health Inequalities in the UK

By LGBT Foundation  We believe in a fair and equal society where all lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people can achieve their full potential. Our work started in 1975 and we’ve been changing the lives of LGBT people ever since. Over the last five decades, we’ve provided information, services and support for LGBT people who’ve had nowhere else to turn. We’ve been at the forefront of the social and legal changes that mean LGBT people in the UK have more rights...

June 28, 2024
Books, Books, Reports, System Characterization, , ,
Read more...
28Jun

LGBT Equality Index. The most LGBT-Friendly Countries in the World.

By Equaldex  The LGBT legal index measures the current legal status of 13 different issues ranging from the legal status of homosexuality, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, LGBT discrimination protections, LGBT censorship laws, and more. Each topic is weighted differently (for example, if same-sex marriage is illegal in a region, it would have a much bigger impact on the score than not allowing LGBT people to serve in the military). Each topic is assigned a "total possible score" and a "score" is assigned...

June 28, 2024
Books, Books, Reports, System Characterization, ,
Read more...
28Jun

Discrimination and Barriers to Well-Being: The State of the LGBTQI+ Community in 2022

By Caroline Medina & Lindsay Mahowald LGBTQI+ people and other “sexual and gender diverse”1 people experience structural and interpersonal discrimination that adversely affects their well-being and drives disparate outcomes across crucial areas of life.2 The current patchwork of nondiscrimination laws in states across the country and existing gaps in federal civil rights laws leave millions of LGBTQI+ people without protection from discrimination.3 The Biden-Harris administration, since the beginning of its tenure, has taken numerous actions across executive agencies to bolster nondiscrimination protections in...

June 28, 2024
Articles, System Characterization, , , , ,
Read more...