July 2020

17Jul

Supporting Seniors: How Low-Income Elderly Individuals Respond to a Retirement Support Program

By Sumit Agarwal, Wenlan Qian, Tianyue Ruan, Bernard Yin Yeung Insufficient savings for retirement expose individuals to financial vulnerability in the post-retirement years and prompt governments to consider support measures. We study a government cash subsidy program for the low-income elderly population in Singapore. Using comprehensive, high-frequency transaction data, we find that elderly individuals increase spending by 0.7 dollars per dollar of subsidy received. We also show that they increase food expenditure and the variety of retail purchases. The...

July 17, 2020
Adequacy, Articles, , ,
Read more...
08Jul

Does early access to pension funds improve health?

In a recent study from Singapore, early access to pension wealth was associated with improved health status. The findings are published in Economic Inquiry. Singapore has a unique policy that allows individuals to withdraw a proportion of their pension savings after their 55th birthday, which relaxes individuals' borrowing constraints. To examine its health impacts, investigators analyzed monthly survey data from 2015 to 2019, comparing individuals' self-reported health status before and after their 55th birthday. The results indicated that early...

July 8, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...

April 2020

20Apr

US. We Need a New Social Contract for the Coronavirus

Our collective behavior will be the primary determinant of whether we can keep this virus in check. A team of infectious disease epidemiologists has calculated that we must reduce our social contacts by 65 percent from what they were before the virus started spreading. Everyone wants to get the country back to work, school, and together again as soon as possible. On Friday, the Trump administration announced it wants to do that in phases and allow each governor...

April 20, 2020
News, Slider, , , , ,
Read more...
20Apr

5 benefits this Singaporean system has over other pension systems

If you’ve wondered how CPF measures up with other countries’ pension systems. The CPF, or Central Provident Fund, is a social security scheme funded by contributions from both employers and employees. Read also India. No deduction in pension amid COVID-19 outbreak: Union Government It helps Singaporeans set aside savings for retirement, as well as for other important things like housing and healthcare. Read also IMF warns of global social unrest amid coronavirus pandemic What sets the CPF apart from other pension systems? Here...

April 20, 2020
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...

February 2020

19Feb

How Japan and Singapore are reinventing old age

A new demographic dividend – the “longevity dividend” – is emerging as populations age; Singapore, one of the most rapidly ageing populations in the world, and Japan, where around 25% of the population is older than 65, are already responding to this demographic shift and benefit from it; From innovative retirement income and care programmes, Japan and Singapore's governments are already seeing positive results. Also Read Mongolian commercial banks resume providing loans to pensioners Demographic change has favoured economic...

February 19, 2020
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...

January 2020

06Jan

Singapore charts path on green finance

WITH more global capital shifting towards sustainable efforts, central banks around the world, including the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), have been nudged to jumpstart the green transition. Last November, Singapore's central bank announced a US$2 billion green investments programme (GIP) to drive growth in sustainable finance. Under the scheme, MAS will channel funds to asset managers who are committed to deepening green finance activities in Singapore. These managers will in turn invest in public market firms with a...

January 6, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...

August 2019

30Aug

Singapore. Pension reforms can boost equity market, bridge wealth gap

FUNDAMENTAL reforms to Singapore's pension system can serve to bridge income inequality as well as revive its public equities market. Continued lack of reforms will worsen the wealth gap and the retirement adequacy of its ageing population, as well as ability to sustain itself as a financial and commercial centre. Singapore's equity markets are somewhat dysfunctional relative to international best practices - pension assets are not deployed to support local capital markets but often invested abroad via GIC. Through...

August 30, 2019
News, Slider,
Read more...

December 2018

17Dec

Singapore Savings Bonds opened to Supplementary Retirement Scheme funds; individual limit to double

Investors will be able to apply for Singapore Savings Bonds (SSB) using their Supplementary Retirement Scheme funds with effect from Feb 1, 2019, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a media release on Monday (Dec 17). The Supplementary Retirement Scheme is a voluntary scheme to encourage individuals to save for retirement, over and above their CPF savings. Similar to cash applications, the minimum application amount is S$500. The S$100,000 individual limit for SSB will be also doubled from S$100,000...

December 17, 2018
News, Slider,
Read more...

December 2017

21Dec

Could Tech Relieve Singapore’s Aging Woes?

Singapore is embracing technology and focusing more on personal health, as an expected doubling of seniors over the next two decades forces the nation to confront politically sensitive decisions on financing and immigration. While Singapore’s aging population is something to celebrate in reflecting longevity, it’s also forcing the city state to become more nimble in how it approaches the challenges, Chee Hong Tat, senior minister of state for health and communications and information, said in an interview Tuesday. “You need to help...

December 21, 2017
News, Slider
Read more...

November 2017

27Nov

The Effect of Non-Contributory Pensions on Labour Supply and Private Income Transfers: Evidence from Singapore

By Yanying Chen (School of Economics, Singapore Management University) & Yi Jin Tan (School of Economics, Singapore Management University) Non-contributory pensions are becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide. As their effects are likely to be context-dependent, evaluating their effects in a wide range of settings is important for establishing the external validity of the non-contributory pension literature. We use a new monthly panel dataset and a difference-in-differences strategy to study the effect of a new non-contributory pension in Singapore (the Silver Support...

November 27, 2017
Aging, Labor Market, Pension design, ,
Read more...