March 2026
20Mar

War and Pensions: The Effects of War on Social Security and Pensions Around the World

By John A. Turner, David Rajnes, Gerard Hughes & Maher Michelle War has affected the development of social security and employer-provided pensions. Roman soldiers received the first pensions. In most countries, military pensions preceded social security pensions, providing countries experience with the concept and administration of pensions. War or the threat of war affected the development of the two major branches of social insurance-based pensions—Bismarckian (earnings related pensions developed in Germany) and Beveridgian (pensions tied to years of work developed...

March 20, 2026
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13Mar

Why Social Security Is Essential to Measuring Wealth Inequality

By Knowledge at Wharton Staff In this Q&A, professor Sylvain Catherine discusses why including Social Security fundamentally changes how we measure wealth inequality. His paper “Social Security and Trends in Wealth Inequality” was co-authored by Max Miller and Natasha Sarin and recently won the Dimensional Fund Advisors First Prize from the American Finance Association. The paper was previously awarded the Marshall Blume Prize in Financial Research from Wharton’s Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research, given annually to the best...

March 13, 2026
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13Mar

It’s thanks to Social Security wealth inequality isn’t even worse, Wharton economist says. Trump’s policies will push it to insolvency in 6 years

America’s debt burden is caught in a death loop, and President Donald Trump’s policy agenda has accelerated that spiral. Among other consequences, the country’s race towards fiscal chaos might also plunge Social Security into insolvency, potentially erasing a $40 trillion buffer that has helped moderate wealth inequality over the past few decades. Modern-day America’s chasm between the ultra-rich and the rest of the country hasn’t been this wide since the Gilded Age, when the wealthiest 5% held a third of...

March 13, 2026
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February 2026
06Feb

Public Pensions and the Strategic Timing of Formal Employment

  By Diego Vera Cossio, Mariano Bosch, Jonathan M. Leganza, Tatiana Mojica & María Laura Oliveri We study how public pensions impact lifecycle labor supply decisions. Our analysis centers on pension eligibility rules in Ecuador. We first use administrative data to document and unpack retirement spikes at eligibility ages. Next, we use survey data and regression discontinuity to investigate whether eligibility rules influence earlier-inlife decisions about when to work formally versus informally. We find discontinuous increases in transitions to formal employment...

February 6, 2026
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January 2026
30Jan

US. Congress Racing to Avoid Shutdown: What It Means for Retirement Plans

President Trump and Senate Democrats reportedly reached a funding agreement on Thursday night to avoid a partial government shutdown, but a lot of elements need to fall into place in a very short period to avoid a shutdown. According to Politico, Trump and the Democrats have agreed to separate out the Department of Homeland Security (which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement) from the larger spending bill moving through Congress, and approve that bill, along with a short-term continuing resolution to...

January 30, 2026
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09Jan

Chile. Senate Advances Bill to Prevent Convicted Individuals from Receiving Survivor Pensions for Femicide and Domestic Violence

The Senate’s Commission on Women and Gender Equity has unanimously approved a project that amends Article 5 bis of Decree Law No. 3,500 of 1980. This change aims to ensure that individuals convicted of crimes such as femicide and domestic violence do not benefit from the survivor pension of their victims. This initiative, currently in its second legislative process, seeks to establish a legal framework for the correct application and full functionality of the law, according to the Senate’s bulletin. The...

January 9, 2026
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December 2025
19Dec

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...

December 19, 2025
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19Dec

Social Security Reforms and Inequality among Older Workers in Spain

By Cristina Bellés-Obrero, Manuel Flores, Pilar Garcia-Gomez, Sergi Jimenez-Martin & Judit Vall Castelló This chapter studies social security reforms and trends in inequalities among older workers over the last decades in Spain. Its main goal is to analyze the redistributive impact of the various pension reforms on older income inequality. Compared to the rules in 1985, recent pension reforms have led to an average increase on Social Security Wealth of approximately 18,000€ for men and 15,000€ for women. This represents...

December 19, 2025
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19Dec

Labor Supply and Savings Responses to Increasing the Pension Eligibility Age in South Korea

By Janghyeok An, Devon Gorry & Jonathan M. Leganza We study how South Koreans responded to an increase in the full pension eligibility age. Using a regression discontinuity design, we document the causal effects of the change on several potential margins of adjustment. We find clear evidence of delayed benefit claiming, consistent with studies in other settings. However, we find little to no statistical evidence of changes in labor supply, in contrast with previous literature. We also find no changes...

December 19, 2025
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November 2025
21Nov

How to Understand Pension Systems and Social Security? The ABCs of Pensions in Latin America and the Caribbean

By Waldo Andres Tapia Troncoso & Daniel Gamboa Rinckoar Pension systems are fundamental pillars of both present and future well-being for populations in any society. But what exactly are they, and how do they work in Latin America and the Caribbean? In this article, we break down the "ABCs"—the essential basics you need to understand pension systems in the region. We also provide a guide to their structure, how they function, and the challenges they face in the Latin American and...

November 21, 2025
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