February 2025
14Feb

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World: The Effects of Reforms on Retirement Behavior

By Axel Börsch-Supan & Courtney Coile Employment among older men and women has increased dramatically in recent years, reversing a downward trend in the closing decades of the twentieth century. Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World examines how changing retirement incentives have reshaped labor force participation trends among older workers. The chapters feature country-specific analyses for Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They find that while there is significant heterogeneity...

February 14, 2025
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10Feb

Chile’s Pension Reform Makes a Case for Political Compromise

Last week, Chile’s Congress broke a decade-long impasse and approved a pension reform, a flashpoint in Chilean politics. The green light represents a legislative victory for President Gabriel Boric in the last full year of his administration. However, while Boric can claim that his government will leave a meaningful legacy, he’s giving up a central point in his reform agenda: the elimination of the Pension Fund Administrators (AFPs). The approved reform differs significantly from the government’s initial proposal submitted in November 2022,...

February 10, 2025
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07Feb

Challenges and concerns surrounding China’s retirement age reform

By China Labour Bulletin China is currently grappling with a pressing demographic challenge, marked by record-low birth rates and low retirement ages, leading to a continuous decline in the working-age population. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the working-age population dropped to 61.3% in 2023, down from 62% the previous year. The shrinking workforce and ageing population are increasingly straining China’s pension system. Current projections indicate that, without intervention, the social security system’s resources will be depleted by 2035. In response to...

February 7, 2025
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January 2025
31Jan

Allianz Global Pension Report 2025: Time to walk the talk

By Allianz Research  Allianz published the third edition of its “Global Pension Report”, which analyzes 71 pension systems around the globe with the help of the company's own “Allianz Pension Index” (API). The indicator consists of three pillars: analysis of the demographic and fiscal situation, and an assessment of the sustainability (e.g. financing and contribution periods) and adequacy (e.g. coverage and pension levels) of the pension system. A total of 40 parameters are taken into account, with scores between 1...

January 31, 2025
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29Jan

Chilean Senate approves pension reform

After a debate of almost 10 hours, followed from the stands by social organizations, the upper house adopted the initiative early this morning by 40 votes in favor and only seven against. “We have been able to build a path of agreements and respect for the word given,” said the Minister of Labor and promoter of the proposal, Jeannette Jara, who pointed out that the project will benefit more than three million people. Senator Isabel Allende, of the Socialist Party, highlighted...

January 29, 2025
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29Jan

Ukraine tackles world’s fastest aging population with drastic pension overhaul

As Russia’s war takes its toll on Ukraine’s military-capable population, the country faces a ticking demographic time bomb that is forcing the adoption of unpopular decisions. Ukraine’s dwindling adult population can no longer sustain a solidarity pension system, in which each working adult supports one pensioner — a ratio that could be one of the highest in the world. Each adult will now maintain their own pension fund account to supplement the very basic state social assistance. This step, the...

January 29, 2025
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20Jan

Kenya. NSSF commits to reforms including expedited processing of benefits

National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has announced the launch of several new initiatives targeting workers across various sectors of the economy in a bid to improve social security coverage and financial inclusion. The NSSF, which plays a vital role in providing social security to the workforce, said if was impelementing reforms aimed at expanding its coverage, increasing transparency, and promoting financial literacy among contributors. These changes are part of a broader effort to modernize the social security system and make it...

January 20, 2025
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17Jan

Retirement Consumption and Pension Design

By Jonas Kolsrud, Camille Landais, Daniel Reck & Johannes Spinnewijn This paper analyzes consumption to evaluate the distributional effects of pension reforms. Using Swedish administrative data, we show that on average workers who retire earlier consume less while retired and experience larger drops in consumption around retirement. Interpreted via a theoretical model, these findings imply that reforms incentivizing later retirement incur a substantial consumption-smoothing cost. Turning to other features of pension policy, we find that reforms that redistribute based on...

January 17, 2025
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17Jan

Pension reform and wealth inequality: Theory and evidence

By Torben M. Andersen, Joydeep Bhattacharya, Anna Grodecka-Messi & Katja Mann A growing literature explores reasons for rising wealth inequality, but is mostly silent on the role of pension systems despite their well-understood influence on life-cycle savings. This paper develops a simple life-cycle model to lay bare the primary theoretical mechanisms connecting pension systems, asset accumulation, and the wealth distribution. Mandated fully-funded plans transform individuals with lower incomes, often characterized as low savers, into asset owners, and may also imply...

January 17, 2025
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15Jan

French PM to review Pension Reform

French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said Tuesday his government will focus on stability, dialogue and profound reforms, especially on pensions. In his general policy speech, Bayrou emphasized the urgency of reducing France's historic public debt and achieving financial stability. "France has never been as indebted as it is today," he noted. To reduce the deficit to 5.4 percent of GDP by 2025 and further to around 3 percent by 2029, Bayrou urged all ministries to implement profound reforms. He announced plans...

January 15, 2025
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