September 2017

22Sep

Using Behavioral Science to Increase Retirement Savings

By Andrew Fertig, Jaclyn Lefkowitz & Alissa Fishbane We all deserve a dignified retirement, yet for many of us saving enough remains an obscure, unrealized goal. In an ideal world, planning for our retirement would begin with our first job, continue throughout our working years, and end in sufficient savings for a comfortable future. This pathway may be possible for the few among us with employer-provided pensions, where someone else handles all the planning and saving. Yet trends in the retirement...

September 22, 2017
Articles, Investing, Savings, Slider-Left, System Sustainability, , , , , ,
Read more...
20Sep

The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence

By Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell In this paper, we undertake an assessment of the rapidly growing body of research on financial literacy. We start with an overview of theoretical research which casts financial knowledge as a form of investment in human capital. Endogenizing financial knowledge has important implications for welfare as well as policies intended to enhance levels of financial knowledge in the larger population. Next, we draw on recent surveys to establish how much (or how little)...

September 20, 2017
Articles, Investing, Savings, , ,
Read more...
15Sep

Drawing Down Retirement Savings – Do Pensions, Taxes and Government Transfers Matter Much for Optimal Decisions?

By Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald (Independent), Richard J. Morrison (Independent), Marvin Avery (Human Resources and Skills Development), Lars Osberg (Dalhousie University) This paper examines the importance of pensions (employment and social security), taxes and government transfers for alternative retirement savings drawdown strategies, based on Canadian evidence. Using as examples single elderly Canadians at the 10th, median and 90th percentiles of the income distribution, we use a lifetime utility framework to evaluate an illustrative set of six popular drawdown strategies. Our longitudinal dynamic...

September 15, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Pension design, Savings, Slider, , ,
Read more...
08Sep

Does Financial Education Impact Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior, and If so, When?

By Tim Kaiser (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin); University of Kiel) and Lukas Menkhoff (German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin); Humboldt University of Berlin) In a meta-analysis of 126 impact evaluation studies, we find that financial education significantly impacts financial behavior and, to an even larger extent, financial literacy. These results also hold for the subsample of randomized experiments (RCTs). However, intervention impacts are highly heterogeneous: Financial education is less effective for lowincome clients as well as...

September 8, 2017
Articles, Investing, Savings, , ,
Read more...
08Sep

Financial Literacy and Inclusive Growth: Challenges and Opportunities

By Dinesha P. T. Sr. (University of Mysore) In India, financial literacy could now be only for the disadvantaged needy / underprivileged / poor but this is a continuous process where all citizens of the country should be periodically educated, which would become a certain tool to pave for the economic growth and the strength of the country. Recently our Prime Minister has announced series of ambitious social security schemes, relating to the pension and insurance sector and intended at...

September 8, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Labor Market, Slider-Left, ,
Read more...

July 2017

09Jul

Role of Social Security in Explaining the Rate of Saving Disparity: A Historical Study of New Zealand versus Singapore: 1960 – 1993

By Debasis Bandyopadhyay & Vera M. Chung (University of Auckland) This paper provides evidence to argue that the difference in the social security schemes of two countries may help explain the disparity in their saving rates. We examine the argument by limiting our focus to a comparison of New Zealand and Singapore for the period 1960 – 1993. We choose the period to avoid the potential impact of the major restructuring of the New Zealand Superannuation since 1994 toward a...

July 9, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Regulation, Savings,
Read more...

May 2017
08May

The Impact of Social Pensions on Intergenerational Relationships: Comparative Evidence from China

By Xi Chen (Yale), Karen Eggleston (Stanford University) & Ang Sun Renmin University of China) China launched a new rural pension scheme (hereafter NRPS) for rural residents in 2009, now covering almost all counties with over 400 million people enrolled. This implementation of the largest social pension program in the world offers a unique setting for studying the economics of intergenerational relationships during development, given the rapidity of China's population aging, traditions of filial piety and co-residence, decreasing number of children,...

May 8, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, ,
Read more...

March 2017
10Mar

Does Financial Regulation Unintentionally Ignore Less Privileged Populations?

By Maya Haran Rosen & Orly Sade (Hebrew University) In 2014, the Israeli insurance and long term savings regulator reached out to the Israeli population to help individuals find inactive retirement plans and withdraw inactive funds. We find that the government's effort did not result in withdrawals of the majority of the accounts, and did not reach all subpopulations equally. Provident fund records indicate that those who took financial action and withdrew funds following the campaigns live in localities in...

March 10, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Regulation, , ,
Read more...
08Mar

Financial Inclusion and Consumer Protection in Peru

As part of its Global Policy Initiative, CGAP partnered with the Superintendence of Banks, Insurance and AFPs of Peru in late 2008, with the purpose of enhancing the understanding of the issues and trends in consumer relations when financial services are delivered through branchless banking, particularly through agents, which are used in ever increasing scale in Peru. The product was this joint report. The Superintendence and CGAP coordinated closely on data and information gathering, as well as on writing this...

March 8, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Regulation, System Sustainability, ,
Read more...

February 2017

04Feb

Savings After Retirement: A Survey

By Mariacristina De Nardi, Eric French,& John B. Jones The saving patterns of retired U.S. households pose a challenge to the basic life-cycle model of saving. The observed patterns of out-of-pocket medical expenses, which rise quickly with age and income during retirement, and heterogeneous lifespan risk, can explain a significant portion U.S. savings during retirement. However, more work is needed to disentangle these precautionary saving motives from other motives, such as the desire to leave bequests. An important complementary question...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Savings, ,
Read more...