September 2019

27Sep

Pensions and Early Retirement: The Case of The Public Servants in Uganda

By Kibs Boaz Muhanguzi Retirement, if influenced by pensions, can be a good manifestation of how the government can use the pension system as a fiscal instrument to achieve some socioeconomic targets. Borrowing intuition from the postulations of disengagement theory of aging that when the elderly retire, they free up positions in paid work for the entry of young individuals, this study investigates the role of incentives on early retirement. The high levels of unemployment in Uganda amidst the...

September 27, 2019
Articles, Pension design, System Sustainability, , , ,
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10Sep

Estonian average pension to exceed 500 euros after indexation

The average Estonian pension will after the spring 2020 indexation surpass 500, the country’s Finance Ministry has stated. Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports that on Monday, September 9, the Estonian government’s summer economic forecast presentation has been held. Pensions increase annually in April as a result of indexing, with the change coming into effect on the first day of the month. In the second quarter of 2019 the average Estonian old-age pension was nearly EUR 485. In 2020, a...

September 10, 2019
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August 2019

30Aug

The Impact of Governmental Accounting Standards on Public-Sector Pension Funding

By Divya Anantharaman, Elizabeth Chuk The funding policy for defined benefit pension plans covering government employees represents an important decision for government entities sponsoring those plans. In recent years, a number of state and local governments have experienced extreme funding shortfalls (e.g., New Jersey, Illinois, and Detroit), raising concerns about whether government entities are contributing enough to their pensions. Governmental Accounting Standards Board Statements Number 67/68 (hereafter, “GASB 67/68”) fundamentally alter the financial reporting of pension liabilities, by (i)...

August 30, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Savings, System Sustainability, , ,
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July 2019

Navigating Complex Financial Decisions at Retirement: Evidence from Annuity Choices in Public Sector Pensions

By Robert L. Clark, Robert G. Hammond, David Vanderweide Choices regarding the disposition of wealth at retirement can have substantial implications for retirement income security. We analyze the factors determining annuity option choices offered by a public sector defined pension plan with no default annuity option. Using combined administrative records and survey data, we explore the role of individual and household characteristics as well as risk preferences, time preferences, and financial literacy. The evidence is consistent with predictions over which...

July 19, 2019
Articles, Investing, Pension design, Savings, , ,
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June 2019

14Jun

The Future of Public Employee Retirement Systems (Pensions Research Council) (English Edition)

By Gary Anderson, Olivia S. Mitchell People covered by public pensions are often the subject of 'pension envy:' that is, their benefits might seem more generous and their contributions lower than those offered by the private sector. Yet this book points out that such judgments are often inaccurate, since civil servants hold jobs with few counterparts in private industry, such as firefighters, police, judges, and teachers. Often these are riskier, dirtier, and demand more loyalty and discretion than would...

June 14, 2019
Books, System Sustainability, , , ,
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14Jun

The Effects of Pension-Related Policies on Household Spending

By Susana Párraga Rodríguez This paper estimates the impact of pension-related policies on household spending. The identification strategy exploits the deviation in pensioner income and expenditure caused by the introduction of a new pension system during the 1980s and 1990s in Spain and constructs a new narrative series of legislated pension changes. I present a variety of estimates, some of them imply that increases in the average pension have a roughly one-for-one effect on pensioner spending. The strongest effects...

June 14, 2019
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May 2019

31May

Pension Scheme Designs: Can It Influence Timing of Retirement? The Case of the Public Service Pension Scheme in Uganda

By Kibs Boaz Muhanguzi Ambiguity in literature about how pensions influence retirement decision can be a challenge to policy formulation unless further inquiry is done. This ambiguity could be attributed to a number of factors including the study scope, different pension designs and differing study methodologies. Using Uganda’s public service pension scheme, this study delves into exploring whether the scheme’s design influences timing of retirement. Using a probit model, analysis of the effect of pension o timing of retirement...

May 31, 2019
Aging, Articles, Pension design, ,
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10May

Retirement Choices by State and Local Public Sector Employees: The Role of Eligibility and Financial Incentives

Por Leslie E. Papke I analyze the effects of state public pension parameters on the retirement of public employees. Using a panel data set of public sector workers from 12 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, I model the probability of retirement as a function of pension wealth at early and normal retirement eligibility and Social Security coverage in the public sector job. I find that becoming eligible for early retirement, or receiving an early-out offer, significantly increases the...

May 10, 2019
Articles, Pension design,
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04May

A Lifetime of Changes: State Pensions and Work Incentives at Older Ages in the UK, 1948-2018

By James Banks, Carl Emmerson We describe the history of state pension policy in the UK since 1948 and calculate summary measures of the generosity of the system over time and the degree to which the it created implicit taxes on, or subsidies to, work at older ages. The time series of these measures, calculated separately for ’example-type’ individuals of different birth cohorts, education and sexes, are then related to the time-series of employment rates at older ages for the equivalent...

May 4, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, ,
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March 2019

31Mar

Global Pension Crisis: Unfunded Liabilities and How We Can Fill the Gap

By Richard A. Marin, Robert H. Frank A comprehensive look at the crisis of unfunded pension liabilities and what must be done to avoid the same problem in the future As the generational bubble of the Baby Boomers begins to retire, it is increasingly evident that governments, corporations, and individuals have failed to adequately prepare for the obligations and needs of this giant cohort. Retirees are outliving actuarial life expectancies, pension liabilities are skyrocketing, pension plans are underfunded, and medical costs...

March 31, 2019
Books, Books, System Sustainability, , , ,
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