August 2023

Bangladesh enters the era of universal pension

Bangladesh has launched a universal pension scheme to bring four types of citizens under a sustainable and organised social security system. “From now on, professionals from every economic stratum will receive pensions, which will eliminate social disparity,” said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, as she inaugurated the scheme on Thursday. Anyone aged over 18 years and not holding a government job will be eligible for the pension plan by paying a regular premium. Expatriates can also avail themselves of the service. The...

July 2023

China to expand national pilot project for hospice care, further improve humanistic care for elderly with an aging society

China will expand its national pilot project for hospice care with a third batch of pilot areas, further improving humanistic care for the elderly and the terminally ill across the country, a move to cope with the nation's rapidly aging population. China's National Health Commission (NHC) has issued a notice announcing the third batch of places, which include three provincial-level places - Beijing, East China's Zhejiang, Central China's Hunan - and another 61 cities or districts such as Nankai district...

May 2023

A zoom into Asia’s pension reform journey: different perspectives of a multi-pillar approach

By Calvin Chiu & Elvin Tharm Pension reform in Asia is progressing as the region faces numerous challenges: ageing populations, rising life expectancy and the erosion of traditional family and community support for the elderly. While the traditional state-provided pension may provide one potential source of retirement income, Manulife Investment Management believes that a comprehensive multi-pillar approach, such as that outlined by the World Bank, should be the best way forward. In this initial paper of a new series on...

China continues to raise basic pension payments for retirees

China announced Monday that it will raise the basic pension payments for retirees in 2023, marking 19th consecutive annual increase. The average monthly payment for pensioners of enterprises, government agencies and public institutions is set to be lifted by 3.8 percent from the 2022 level, according to a circular jointly issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance. Last year, China raised the basic pension payments for retirees by 4 percent from level of...

Access to Pensions, Old-Age Support, and Child Investment in the People’s Republic of China

By Xiaoyue Shan & Albert Park This paper studies how access to public pensions affects old-age support and child investment in traditional societies. Guided by predictions from an overlapping generations model, we analyze the influences of a new pension program in rural People’s Republic of China, using a difference-in-differences approach. We find that the program crowds out transfers from working-age adults, especially men, to their elderly parents. Interestingly, the impact on child investment significantly differs by child gender. While adult...

April 2023

Social protection and response to covid-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean: Innovations in registration and payment systems

By Nurth Palomo, Luis Vargas Faulbaum, Anna Carolina Machado, Camila Rolon and Fábio Veras Soares, Monica Rubio, Florencia Alejandre & Gerardo Escaroz The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the foundations of the economy and provoked devastating social effects in all the countries in the world, being Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) one of the most affected regions. As of mid-March 2021, there were 37 million reported cases in the region and a staggering 1,275,567 deaths, equivalent to...

Aging, Inadequacy, and Fiscal Constraint: The Case of Thailand

By Phitawat Poonpolkul, Ponpoje Porapakkarm & Nada Wasi We use an overlapping generations model to study the challenge in developing countries with a large informal sector and aging populations. We use Thailand as a case study and incorporate its labor market structure and its public pension system into the calibrated model. Unlike developed countries, workers in developing countries commonly transit from the formal sector to the informal sector, which can be in the early stage of their working life. This...

March 2023

Pension Provision in Thailand

By Robert Palacios & Himanshi Jain This report documents the current state of pension provision in Thailand and options for reform that would increase the adequacy and sustainability of the pension system. While the focus here is on income support, the welfare of the elderly depends on many other government policies ranging from labor market policies to aged care and health services. It is also important to assess the pension system in terms of its broader impact on fiscal sustainability...

January 2023

Pensions Benefit More than Retirees, Says Report

Pensions obviously benefit retirees, their dependents and their beneficiaries. But while it may be less obvious, pensions also benefit society writ large — to the tune of trillions, with a T. The National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) every two years updates its Pensionomics analysis that measures the economic “ripple effect” of payments from defined benefit plans. In “Pensionomics 2023: Measuring the Economic Impact of DB Pension Expenditures,” the NIRS quantifies the broader benefits of DB plans; namely, the economic...

Towards construction of comprehensive care systems in Latin America and the Caribbean: ELEMENTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

By ECLAC The Latin American and Caribbean region is experiencing an unprecedented economic and social crisis. The effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have spread to all spheres of human life, hurting economies, changing the way we interact, and causing extensive societal changes. The crisis has highlighted and exacerbated structural gaps, deepening pre-existing inequalities and exposing the vulnerabilities of political, economic, and social protection systems. The onset of the crisis magnified the structural challenges of gender inequality, reversing much...