February 2022

The Taxation of Pensions

By Robert Holzmann & John Piggott Theoretical and policy perspectives on the taxation of pension, viewed in an international context. Policy makers and academic researchers have been preoccupied in recent decades with the design of pension schemes and effective pension system reform. Relatively little attention has been given to the taxation of pensions and, more broadly, the provision of retirement income. In this book, experts from a range of countries explore the interconnection. Their contributions are especially timely, given recent demographic...

Low Demand for Reverse Mortgages in Canada: Price, Knowledge or Preferences?

By Admin SSRN au/at CIRANO, Ismael Choiniere Crevecoeur & Pierre-Carl Michaud High borrowing costs, limited knowledge and preferences could explain why few Canadians purchase reverse mortgages, an asset decumulation product that is appealing to those who are house-rich but cash-poor. In this paper, we first use an asset pricing model to calculate the actuarial fair costs of guarantees built into reverse mortgage products in Canada and compare those estimates to prevailing interest rates in the market for these products. We...

Can aging population trends tame inflation?

By Larry Berman The Economist, one of my favourite weekly reads (or listens these days with audio features), highlights a recent paper examining the effects of demographic change on saving, Etienne Gagnon, Benjamin Johannsen and David López-Salido of the Federal Reserve Board suggest that aging in America may account for about one percentage point of the drop in interest rates since the 1980s. Other research has suggested it could be as much as three per cent. One thing is fact,...

The Silver Economy Gets a Covid Reality Check

French care-home operator Orpea was once a bet on better retirement. In an aging society, demand for long-term care would only rise — and so would demand for long-term returns, hence why Canada’s top pension fund bought a 15% stake in 2013. It was going to be the virtuous circle of the “silver economy” in action — retirement as an asset class. The virtuous circle now looks like a vicious one. After years of growth, some 3.4 billion euros ($3.9 billion) has been wiped...

Turkey’s retirees suffer inflation pain despite pension hike

With soaring inflation in Turkey that has hit all walks of life, the pain of high cost of living is probably felt most by the country's old-age pensioners, despite the promises by the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to "crush the people under exorbitant prices." "I buy fruits and vegetables at closure time in the neighborhood market because of the cheaper price as sellers want to clear their shelves at the end of the day," Faruk Ekmen, a...

January 2022

Managing Misbehavior: Rational Choice in an Uncertain Retirement

By Rene Martel, Jennifer Gongola, sean klein, Avi Sharon Behavioral science has helped encourage better behaviors for many investors who are accumulating savings for retirement. This paper investigates the application of behavioral science to decumulation to help investors make better choices and maintain quality of life in retirement. We conducted a proprietary research study, collecting more than 750 responses from affluent and high-net-worth investors in the United States age 55 and older. The results identify key behavioral influences linked to...

Wages and pensions fall in Uruguay due to economic policy

Wage drops and pension losses foreshadowed today a 2022 of economic restrictions in Uruguay, according to data provided by representatives of the Social Security Bank (PBS for its acronym in Spanish). The year before closed as the second consecutive year of the current right-wing coalition government, in which the adjustment of the salary of the workers was lower than inflation, which also means that retired people will receive a pension below the level of consumer prices. Ramón Ruiz, director of the...

Malaysia. Tweak pension fund to benefit low- income workers

In our published paper nearly a decade ago, we wrote that “... scant attention is given to the plight of low-income workers in a situation of rising inequality caused by widening pay-gaps or differences in actual wages”, and “low average savings balances raise the question of retirement adequacy at desired income replacement rates” (Hamid and Chai, 2013). We stated that, “Since either expanding the accumulation phase or setting a minimum sum balance would result in unpopular delayed pay-outs, other solutions must...

Racial Inequality in Unemployment Insurance Receipt and Take-Up

By Elira Kuka & Bryan A. Stuart This paper studies differences in receipt and take-up of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits among white and Black individuals. We combine state-level UI regulations with data containing detailed information on individuals’ work history and UI receipt. Black individuals who separate from a job are 24% less likely to receive UI than whites. The UI receipt gap stems primarily from lower take-up of UI benefits among likely eligible individuals, as opposed to differences in benefit...

Did Pandemic Unemployment Benefits Reduce Employment? Evidence from Early State-Level Expirations in June 2021

By Harry J. Holzer, R. Glenn Hubbard & Michael R. Strain The generosity of Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits was expanded during the pandemic (FPUC), along with the groups of workers eligible for benefits (PUA). These two programs were set to expire in September 2021, but 18 states opted out of both in June 2021. Using Current Population Survey data, we present difference-in-difference and event study estimates that the flow of unemployed workers into employment increased by around two-thirds following early...