By Jing Wang & Jiuheng He Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become central to public-facing policy programs, yet they remain undertheorized, only treated as either instruments or objects of such policies. This paper argues that ICTs in such programs operate as transductive infrastructures, a delivery chain not only transmitting policy information but also defining […]

By Alina Malkova When governments expand pension systems, families reduce intergenerational transfers. This paper tests the reverse: do families substitute back toward informal insurance when governments renege on pension promises? I study Russia’s 2014 funded pension freeze, which eliminated future contributions for workers born after 1967, using RLMS panel data (2010–2023) and a cohort difference-in-differences […]

By Allen Mendenhall & Dan Sutter State public pension systems manage over $6 trillion in assets while facing approximately $1.3 trillion in unfunded liabilities, raising fundamental questions about governance effectiveness and fiduciary accountability. This Article examines these challenges through the analytical framework of governance, applying insights from public choice, principal-agent models, and corporate governance to […]

Latin America and the Caribbean face a labour-market contradiction that has persisted for decades: policies designed to protect workers can sometimes make formal employment more expensive, leaving millions outside the systems intended to support them. The Inter-American Development Bank is calling for a broad redesign of labour regulation, social protection and workforce training across the […]

The Equable Institute’s 2026 survey of the 253 US state and local pension plans shows that their funded ratio has reached 85%, the best since hitting bottom during the 2008 global financial crisis.Their average return on investment was 9.4%, higher than the average target of 6.9%. Set against this strong performance, however, is the US$1.37 […]

Employers in the UK are spending more than five hours a month on managing workplace pension administration, analysis from Penfold has found. This equates to over 62 hours spent on pensions-related administration across a year, or more than a full working week. Penfold’s The UK Pension Gap report warned that these requirements remained a “significant burden” for […]

While Canada’s economy remains under pressure from a technical recession and external geopolitical threats, panic among institutional investors would be premature. That’s the message from BeiChen Lin, director and head of Canadian investment strategy at Russell Investments, who sees the global picture as broadly positive even as Canada navigates a more difficult path than most […]