February 2026

Retirement Under Policy Uncertainty

By Piera Bello, Vincenzo Galasso & Alessandro Izzo This paper examines how policy uncertainty influences retirement decisions. We develop a simple model in which individuals face a one-time choice between immediate retirement and continued employment until the statutory retirement age. In the absence of policy uncertainty, retirement decisions depend solely on the standard income–leisure trade-off. When future pension reforms are uncertain, however, individuals also take into account the perceived risk of increases in the retirement age or reductions in benefit...

OECD Employment Outlook 2025. Can We Get Through the Demographic Crunch?

By OECD The OECD Employment Outlook looks at the latest labour market developments and prospects in OECD member countries. This edition also discusses the enormous challenges population ageing poses to living standards and social cohesion more generally. The consequences of an ageing workforce for productivity growth are also analysed. Without swift changes in policies and behaviours, GDP per capita growth will slow down significantly in most OECD countries. Integrating under-represented groups in the labour market will help offset ageing, in particular older...

January 2026

Pension Saving in a Gendered Lifecourse

By Hayley James Despite automatic enrolment in work pension schemes, private saving for pensions in the UK is relatively low, with most people under-pensioned in later life and reliant on the state pension. In this book, Hayley James shows that equally significant is that women save far less for old age than men. Indeed, her detailed research reveals the ways in which pension saving, as an everyday practice of finance, is shaped by gender and how this evolves over the...

December 2025

Comparing Socialist Approaches: Economics and Social Security in Cuba, China, and Vietnam

By Carmelo Mesa-Lago In Comparing Socialist Approaches, Carmelo Mesa-Lago examines the two main socialist models across Cuba, China, and Vietnam to compare central planning and socialist markets. Under the Cuban central plan, large state enterprises have been unable to generate economic growth, even with mild structural market reforms and a small controlled private sector. In the Sino-Vietnamese model of a socialist marketplace, dynamic private enterprises of all sizes, together with large state enterprises, operate under a decentralized plan with state regulation and...

8 ways countries with aging populations are reshaping the economy

Across many advanced economies, falling birth rates and rising life expectancy are reshaping labor markets, public finances, and growth assumptions faster than policymakers expected. What once unfolded over generations is now compressing into decades, leaving less time to adapt. The economic consequences are structural. Smaller working-age populations limit output and strain employers. Larger retiree populations increase spending on pensions and healthcare. Tax bases narrow just as public costs rise. These forces interact, reinforcing slower growth rather than canceling each other...

November 2025

The longevity revolution: Preparing for a new reality

By Fidelity International There is a quiet revolution happening. It is not about climate change, market cycles or artificial intelligence. It is about time - more specifically, how much more of it we have, and the ability to do what we want with that extra time. For the first time in human history, older populations are growing at a faster pace than the youngest cohorts, ushering in an unprecedented demographic shift worldwide. By 2050, 2.1 billion people - nearly 22%...

Precarious, Poorly Paid, and Unprotected: The ILO’s Definition of the Informal Economy

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines informal employment as work “in small or unregistered businesses and undeclared jobs within registered firms,” under a definition adopted by the 17th International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 2013. While such jobs often provide quick income and greater flexibility, they are usually unstable, poorly paid, and lack basic protections such as health insurance or pensions. The ILO notes that informal employment is not limited to unregistered businesses. It can also occur within formal companies when...

US. State And Local Pensions Must Confront AI’s Systemic Risks

Stock prices are soaring due to investor enthusiasm about the potential for Generative AI to transform the economy. Dismissing concerns about GenAI’s lack of profitability to date, many investors are celebrating. But pension fiduciaries, charged with protecting the financial security of workers and retirees, do not have the luxury of complacency. Their duties of prudence and loyalty require assessing and mitigating risks, and GenAI unquestionably poses portfolio-wide risks. One of those risks is the U.S. tech industry’s approach to...

October 2025

Europe’s aging burden far less than US or China

Graying Europe has long been considered an outlier in global demographics – but the rising cost to its governments in terms of bills for pensions and health care are more manageable than assumed and less than in rival economies in the United States and China. In a detailed report on the rising cost to the public purse from Europe's aging population, Brussels-based think Breugel this week outlined the trajectory through 2070 using the latest country-by-country data from the European Commission. Familiar...

September 2025

Aging, Alcohol, and Attrition: The Economic and Political Ramifications of Public Health in Contemporary Russia

By Andrew Kelmanson, Anonymous Author, Emily Sehati, Eliana Svilik, Kyle H. Chan, Marcus Hsieh & Will Pirone The Russo-Ukrainian War has exacerbated several of the country’s existing public health crises. Specifically, this paper identifies 3 areas of public health concern that are inflamed by the conflict in Ukraine that will likely have an outsized effect on the economic success and political legitimacy of the country in the coming years. These are, namely, alcohol addiction, an aging population, and attrition from...