March 2019

The phony retirement crisis

By Andrew Biggs Contrary to the alarms, household savings are growing. But government plans are underfunded. Lawmakers are taking action to deal with the “retirement crisis.” More than 200 House Democrats are sponsoring a bill to expand Social Security benefits, funded by a dramatic increase in taxes. California, Connecticut, Illinois and Oregon have established state-run retirement plans for private sector-workers, which many progressives hope will supplant 401(k)s. But there is no retirement crisis among either today’s retirees or tomorrow’s. Eight in 10...

Reforming Social Security: The Challenge of Income Inequality

By David W. Rasmussen (Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy) Objective: This article examines the role Social Security plays in alleviating poverty among retirees in the context of threats to its solvency.  Method: Examining long-term employment trends, declining access to defined benefit pensions and saving behavior can determine if in the more future Social Security beneficiaries are likely to be poor.  Results: Labor market trends driven by technical change, global competition and increasing demand for services indicate that more future retirees...

February 2019

Globalisation,Human Security and Social Inclusion

By Olivia Joseph Aluko The groundwork for this volume was laid during a presentation I gave titled ‘Migration as a security threat’ at the 4th Diaspora International Conference organised by the World Association of Sustainable development (WASD) in the UK. Thus, this work is a contribution to a large body of literature on migration studies throughout the whole world. The process of writing this book has come at a time when a spotlight has been placed on immigration as a growing...

The Economic Effects of the UK Government's Proposed Brexit Deal

By Arno Hantzsche (National Institute of Economic and Social Research; University of Nottingham), Amit Kara (Bank of England - Monetary Policy Committee), Garry Young (National Institute of Economic and Social Research) The focus of our analysis is on how the UK government's proposed Brexit deal is likely to affect the economy. First, we assess how trade, migration, foreign direct investment, productivity and contributions to the EU budget might change by reviewing current proposals against historical evidence. Second, we use the...

The Economic Effects of the UK Government’s Proposed Brexit Deal

By Arno Hantzsche (National Institute of Economic and Social Research; University of Nottingham), Amit Kara (Bank of England - Monetary Policy Committee), Garry Young (National Institute of Economic and Social Research) The focus of our analysis is on how the UK government's proposed Brexit deal is likely to affect the economy. First, we assess how trade, migration, foreign direct investment, productivity and contributions to the EU budget might change by reviewing current proposals against historical evidence. Second, we use the...

January 2019

Learning about Careers: Open data and Labour Market Intelligence

By Graham Attwell & Deirdre Hughes Decisions about learning and work have to be placed in a particular spatial, labour market and socio-cultural context – individuals are taking decisions within particular ‘opportunity structures’ and their decisions and aspirations are further framed by their understanding of such structures. This article examines ways in which learning about careers using open data and labour market intelligence can be applied. An illustrative case study of the LMI for All ...

December 2018

Pension Reform and Return to Work Policies

By Maria Donovan Fitzpatrick For many people, working after beginning retirement benefit collection is a way to enhance financial security by increasing income. Existing research has shown that retirees are sensitive to the Social Security earnings test, which restricts the amount of earnings some beneficiaries can receive. However, little is known about the effects of other types of policies on post-retirement employment. Instead of restricting earnings, many public pension plans restrict the number of hours beneficiaries can work. I use...

Can Information Influence the Social Insurance Participation Decision of China’s Rural Migrants?

By John Giles (World Bank; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)), Xin Meng (Australian National University; IZA Institute of Labor Economics), Guochang Zhao (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE)) This paper uses a randomized information intervention to shed light on whether poor understanding of social insurance, both the process of enrolling and costs and benefits, drives the relatively low rates of participation in urban health insurance and pension programs among China's rural-urban migrants....

November 2018

How Does Delayed Retirement Affect Mortality and Health?

By Alice Zulkarnain (Boston College - Center for Retirement Research), Matthew S. Rutledge (Boston College, Center for Retirement Research) Older Americans have been retiring later for a number of reasons, including jobs that are becoming less physically demanding, the shift from defined benefit to defined contribution pensions, and changes in Social Security’s incentives. What are the implications of working longer for workers’ mortality and health? Answering this question is complicated, because work and health are jointly determined – healthy people...

October 2018

Vulnerability: False Hope for Vulnerable Social Security Clients?

By Terry Carney (The University of Sydney Law School) This article reviews the concept of vulnerability and examines its salience for selected aspects of Australian social security. It argues that vulnerability is a welcome shift from individual to relational thinking, of particular relevance to measurement of deprivation and richer transformations of delivery of welfare services (and access to social and informal support). Vulnerability is a productive analytical lens for better understanding aspects of law and policy, but remains too capacious...