By Strathmore University The purpose of this study is to assess and evaluate the views and attitudes of working age Kenyans who are members of a registered workplace pension schemes. The study reveals the extent in which different factors influence individual’s level of optimism or pessimism about retirement as well as Kenyans actions to prepare for retirement. (more…)
By Marco Angrisani (Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR)), Maria Casanova (University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Department of Economics) & Erik Meijer (University of Southern California; RAND Corporation) We use data from the Health and Retirement Study to examine the role of work-life balance (WLB) as a nonmonetary determinant of retirement transitions, conditional on job attributes such as hours of work, compensation and benefits. We show that low levels of WLB are significantly associated with subsequent reductions...
By Bilal Bagis (Bingol University; Istanbul 29 Mayis University Department of Economics) The Turkish social insurance system has been feverishly debated for years, particularly through its burden on the economy. The most recent reform is an attempt to neutralize the deterioration within the social security system and its effects on the economy. After the recent reform, ‘the way that retirement benefits are calculated’ is changed unfavorably for workers and the minimum age for retirement is increased. In particular, for an...
If the basic tenet of investing is knowing when to buy and sell, the stock market boom has taken that decision out of the hands of some money managers. The $2.9 trillion British pension fund industry is yanking money at an accelerated pace as company valuations forge new records globally. The reason is that the gains are triggering sell orders to quickly lock in investment returns, a safety mechanism introduced after the financial crisis to reduce exposure to potential market...
SMSF Association chief executive John Maroney said changes to the means test taper rate and thresholds, which came into effect on 1 January 2017, reduce the entitlement to the Age Pension as a person or couple's assets increase, leading to "significantly adverse and presumably unintended consequences." The changes have a significant impact on middle-income earners who have accumulated an average-sized superannuation balance and benefit from a part Age Pension payment that supplements their superannuation income, he said. "For home-owning couples who...
By Arun Muralidhar (AlphaEngine Global Investment Solutions; George Washington University) Financial illiteracy is widespread and leads to bad financial decisions (high debt, insufficient savings). Individuals cannot answer basic questions about inflation, compounding, and diversification. While financial literacy can be enhanced, are individuals teachable, and if so, what should they be taught and how lasting is the training? Prof. Merton suggests that some individuals can only be helped with innovation; Prof. Richard Thaler has argued for making the financial system more...
By Jeffrey R. Brown, Arie Kapteyn, Erzo F.P. Luttmer, Olivia S. Mitchell & Anya Samek This paper examines two behavioral factors that diminish people’s ability to value a lifetime income stream or annuity, drawing on a survey of about 4,000 adults in a U.S. nationally representative sample. Our first main finding is that experimentally increasing the complexity of the annuity choice reduces respondents’ ability to value the annuity. We measure lack of ability to value an annuity by the difference...
By Spankulova Seitkazievna (Narxoz University) In the article the labor behavior of women in education in post-Soviet countries is analyzed. model of employment of women (men as well), which was formed in Soviet years, has not undergone significant changes during the years of economic reforms. Expanding the accessibility of formal social security programs to the elderly has changed the behavior of this population in the labor market. Women do not receive social old-age pensions in the same amount as men,...
By Spankulova Seitkazievna (Narxoz University) In the article the labor behavior of women in education in post-Soviet countries is analyzed. model of employment of women (men as well), which was formed in Soviet years, has not undergone significant changes during the years of economic reforms. Expanding the accessibility of formal social security programs to the elderly has changed the behavior of this population in the labor market. Women do not receive social old-age pensions in the same amount as men,...
By M. Nicolas J. Firzli (World Pensions Council (WPC)) The 2017 Spring Meetings coincided with the surprise calling of snap general elections in the UK and military tensions in the Yellow Sea. Our postwar social contract has to cope with unprecedented shocks: Britain’s thorny withdrawal from the EU, worsening Migrant Crisis, rise in populist demagoguery. But there are also positive signs: the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and new, more demanding governance norms are making unprecedented advances across the boardrooms of...
