September 2020

Greece. Funded pension plan for more workers

The Labor and Social Security Ministry is examining the idea of granting younger workers – with few years of labor in the current social security system – the option of choosing to join the new funded auxiliary pension system, the very system that new entrants in the labor market must now enter by law. The same option, per the proposals examined at the General Secretariat for Social Security, will also be offered to any groups of workers who have...

The Quality of Employment (QoE) in Nine Latin American Countries: A Multidimensional Perspective

By Kirsten Sehnbruch This paper proposes a methodology for measuring the quality of employment from a multidimensional and public policy perspective in Latin American developing countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay) using household and labor force survey data from 2015. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the QoE can be measured using a multidimensional methodology that can inform policy makers about the state of their labor markets in a way...

The Impact of Social Security on Pension Claiming and Retirement: Active vs. Passive Decisions

By Rafael Lalive, Arvind Magesan, Stefan Staubli We exploit a unique Swiss reform to identify the importance of passivity, claiming social security benefits at the Full Retirement Age (FRA). Sharp discontinuities generated by the reform reveal that raising the FRA while imposing small early claiming penalties significantly delays pension claiming and retirement, but imposing large penalties and holding the FRA fixed does not. The nature of the reform allows us to identify that between 47 and 69% of individuals are...

August 2020

COVID-19 Infections, Labour Market Shocks, and Subjective Well-Being

By Ferdi Botha, John P. Haisken-DeNew This is the first paper to present novel findings on how simultaneously (a) labour market shocks and (b) infections in the household, directly due to COVID-19, have impacted on life satisfaction and domain satisfactions. Using data from a world-wide online survey of almost 5,700 respondents across six countries, we estimate the associations of COVID-19-related labour market shocks and COVID-19 infection with life satisfaction and a range of domain satisfactions. Directly due to COVID-19,...

Where Did the Pre-COVID World Stand on Protecting the Seniors?

By Natalia Milovantseva, PhD By 2050, the elderly population is expected to reach 2 billion, with 80% living in low- and middle-income countries. In today’s COVID-19 pandemic reality, income and health support for these older adults is a critical concern. What have the world’s countries been doing to ensure that their elderly do not live in poverty? Are there national policies to ensure their health needs are adequately met? How are the countries helping working adults who are responsible...

Ranked: The Best and Worst Pension Plans, by Country

The global population is aging—by 2050, one in six people will be over the age of 65. As our aging population nears retirement and gets closer to cashing in their pensions, countries need to ensure their pension systems can withstand the extra strain. This graphic uses data from the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI) to showcase which countries are best equipped to support their older citizens, and which ones aren’t. The Breakdown Each country’s pension system has been shaped...

July 2020

Age with Care: Long-term Care in Latin America and the Caribbean

By Gianluca Cafagna, Natalia Aranco, Pablo Ibarrarán, María Laura Oliveri, Nadin Medellin, Marco Stampini In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 8 million older people are unable to independently complete at least one basic activity of daily living, such as eating, bathing or showering, or getting in and out of bed. This situation, called care dependence, affects 12% of people over age 60 and nearly 27% of people over age 80 in the region. The demand for long-term...

Society at a Glance

By OECD The OECD biennial report providing internationally comparable data on demography and family characteristics, employment and wealth, mobility and housing, health status, social expenditure, subjective well-being, social cohesion, and other social measures. Included are such interesting variables as suicides, child care costs, prisoners, gender wage gaps, poverty and mothers in employment. Get the book here

June 2020

Changes To Social Security Insurance In China

China has updated their social security insurance policies with some noteworthy changes. Jurisdiction China What's new? 1. Faster social security card application process The State Council and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will facilitate a faster application process for social security cards through the nationwide integrated online government service platform. Read also WeBank, Huawei and KPMG Share Insights on Fighting COVID – 19 with FinTech 2. Merging of Maternity Insurance with Basic Medical Insurance The State Council...

South African Individual Retirement Savings: An Analysis of the Social Factors

By Gizelle Willows This study's primary aim is to determine whether members of a South African tertiary institution's retirement fund are en route to have sufficient retirement savings. Secondly, the results are analysed between different social factors namely: age, gender, race, education level, marital status, and cost of employment. Survey data and information received directly from the retirement fund were used as inputs in a customised model. This method was unique to this study, that is, it was able...