November 2023
21Nov

Pension Reforms, Longer Working Horizons and Absence from Work

By Giorgio Brunello, Maria De Paola & Lorenzo Rocco Using matched employer-employee data for Italy and newly available information on sick leaves certificates, we study the effect of an exogenous increase in the length of the residual work horizon – triggered by a pension reform that increased minimum retirement age - on middle-aged employees' absence from work due to sick leaves. We find that this effect is positive for females and negative for males. After excluding health as a plausible...

November 21, 2023
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17Nov

Unionization of Retired Workers in Europe

By Vinzenz Pyka & Claus Schnabel We shed light on an understudied group: retirees in unions. Using representative individual-level data of 19 European countries, we find that the share of retirees in unions and the union density of retirees increased between 2008 and 2020. Econometric analyses indicate that on average retired workers' probability of union membership is 17 percentage points lower than that of active workers. This finding is consistent with social custom models and cost-benefit considerations. We further find that...

November 17, 2023
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13Nov

US. UAW goes all in on building Cadillac DC plans for members

The United Auto Workers' talks last month with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis concluded without the long-shot reopening of the "Cadillac" defined benefit plans that union executives had targeted. Instead, the union won enough concessions to make members' defined contribution plans a plausible alternative for securing a comfortable retirement. Analysts say the surprisingly strong deal the UAW secured in those talks from U.S. automakers for member 401(k) accounts could elevate the prominence of DC-related demands in future collective bargaining talks. The...

November 13, 2023
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10Nov

U.S. Population Will Start Shrinking by 2100, Census Bureau Forecasts

The population of the U.S. will climb to about 370 million in 2080 before reversing course and starting to fall before the turn of the century, according to a new Census Bureau projection. By 2100, the U.S. will have a population of around 366 million people, unless immigration continues to climb each year, in which case the population could reach as high as 435 million, the bureau forecas U.S. House Votes to Censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib Over Israel Stance In the implausible...

November 10, 2023
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06Nov

Africa could come to the rescue of the aging world

Big change is coming to the world. This is not entirely because of global warming. Change is also occurring because of a sharp decline in the rate of human fertility. In the developed world, women are having fewer children than ever before. Demographers have determined 2.1 children per woman as a critical threshold below which the size of the population would begin to decline. In North America, Europe and Australia the rate is well below this level with the...

November 6, 2023
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October 2023
31Oct

Despite recent economic slowdown, Brazil’s job market keeps improving

While economic indicators show that the Brazilian economy is slowing down, nothing points to the country’s job market cooling down. On Monday afternoon, the Labor Ministry showed that the country created almost 212,000 new formal jobs in September (more than markets expected). And fresh unemployment data published on Tuesday shows that the joblessness rate went down to 7.7 percent in the rolling quarter through September — the lowest since February 2015. According to the latest unemployment reading, the number of employed individuals surged to 99.8 million in Q3,...

October 31, 2023
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31Oct

Number of working Korean women in 30s surges amid low fertility rate

The recent trend of an increase in the proportion of working women in their 30s was primarily due to a reduction in the number of women with children, according to a report released Monday by the Korea Development Institute, a South Korean state-run think tank. Kim Ji-yeon, a researcher at the KDI, noted that although the drop in the number of women in their 30s that have children may seem like a positive factor in the short term because it...

October 31, 2023
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24Oct

China, India face daunting challenge to grow retirement security amid demographic, cultural shifts

Retirement systems in China and India, home to the world's largest populations with around 1.4 billion people in each country, are still in nascent stages but are expected to grow as their economies expand and their demographics shift. In both countries, the first pension pillar — a state-sponsored pension system — has been seen as inadequate, and the second pillar — employer-sponsored retirement plans — is often insufficient in meeting people's rising post-retirement needs. A third pillar focused on building...

October 24, 2023
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24Oct

Statisticians adopt new standards on measuring informal employment

The 21st International Conference of Labour Statisticians  (ICLS) has adopted new standards on the informal economy that will enable countries to collect better data and make better policies for workers employed in the informal economy. The resolution was passed at the centennial ICLS, held at the headquarters of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland, between 11-20 October. Two billion people worldwide work in the informal economy, often with no labour protections or social security coverage and in poor working conditions. Yet,...

October 24, 2023
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20Oct

Preparing for an Aging Africa: Data-Driven Priorities for Economic Research and Policy

By Madeline E. Duhon, Edward Miguel, Amos Njuguna, Daniela Pinto Veizaga & Michael W. Walker The over-60 population in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow rapidly in the coming decades, tripling between 2020 and 2050. Despite this explosive projected growth, few countries in the region have implemented policies designed to support older populations. Further, little research in economics has specifically examined aging in Sub-Saharan Africa, though many opportunities exist for economists to generate research evidence to inform the design of...

October 20, 2023
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