The Chilean Pension System: A Renewed View
By Guillermo Larrain (more…)
04Feb
February 2017
04Feb
Promised and Affordable Replacement Rates in LAC Pension Systems in 2015 and 2100: Methodology and Determinants
By Solange Berstein, Mariano Bosch & María Oliveri This note, originally prepared as an appendix for the 2016 Development in the Americas Report, Saving for Development, surveys the methodology and assumptions used in the discussion of replacement rates for pension systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. (more…)
04Feb
The Effect of Non-contributory Pensions on Saving in Mexico
By IADB This paper examines the effects of non-contributory pension programs at the federal and state levels on Mexican households’ saving patterns using micro data from the Mexican Income and Expenditure Survey. The federal program by itself appears to reduce the saving rate of households whose oldest member is either 18 to 54 or 65 to 69. State programs by themselves have no significant effects on household saving rates in the smallest localities, but in larger localities they may reduce...
04Feb
Non-Contributory Pensions and Savings: Evidence from Argentina
By Martín González-Rozada & Hernán Ruffo This paper examines the effects of Argentina’s Plan de Inclusión Previsional (PIP), which changed the pension system in a way that generated a new noncontributory pillar, produced a huge expansion in pension coverage between 2005 and 2008 and a transfer of a vast amount of resources to households. Using a difference in differences methodology it is found that the PIP policy has reduced the incentives to work and to be in the labor force...
04Feb
Taxing Kenya’s M-Pesa Picks the Pockets of the Poor
By Liliana Rojas-Suarez Kenya has instituted a new tax that affects users of M-Pesa -- a widely popular phone-based money transfer service used by more than half of Kenya’s adult population. The new 10 percent excise duty on fees charged for money transfer services applies to mobile phone providers, banks, and other money transfer agencies. Operated by Safaricom, the largest mobile network operator in Kenya, M-Pesa accounts for the largest share of users of money transfer services. Users of M-Pesa...
04Feb
Aging, Social Security Design, and Capital Accumulation
By Antoine Dedry, Harun Onder & Pierre Pestieau This paper analyzes the impact of aging on capital accumulation and welfare in a country with a sizable unfunded social security system. Using a two-period overlapping generation model with potentially endogenous retirement decisions, the paper shows that the type of aging, i.e. declining fertility or increasing longevity, and the type of unfunded social security system, i.e. defined contributions or defined benefits, are important in understanding this impact. Moreover, the analysis provides a...
04Feb
Towards Sustainable But Still Adequate Pensions in the EU: Theory, Trends and Simulations
By Juraj Draxler & Jorgen Mortensen This report is a summary of the research project on the 'Adequacy and Sustainability of Old-Age Income Maintenance' (AIM). Thirteen institutes from across the EU have collaborated on the task of assessing the situation of today’s pensioners and providing insights into future trends and policy options for securing adequate income for EU pensioners. The AIM project produced several state-of-the-art additions to the debate on EU pension reforms. Among others, the National Institute of Economic and...
04Feb
Can International Capital Standards Strengthen Banks in Emerging Markets?
By Liliana Rojas-Suarez Who should determine banks’ capital standards: authorities or markets? What is the right definition of core capital: equity only or equity plus subordinated debt? Can the assessment of banks' individual credit risks by external rating agencies be of equal or better quality than the assessments derived from banks' own internal rating systems? These are some of the key financial regulatory issues currently being discussed by analysts in industrial countries, especially in the context of the proposed modification...
04Feb
Security of Retirement Benefits in Canada: You Bet Your Life?
By Ronald B. Davis This paper provides a careful review and analysis of employment-based pensions and other post-retirement benefits that may be available to Canadian workers when they retire, with particular emphasis on the extent to which such benefits are vulnerable to unilateral employer alteration or cancellation, and to the risks which arise in the event of the employer's insolvency. Taking stock of key differences between the rights of unionized employees and non-unionized ones, the author argues that the legal...
04Feb
How Should the Adequacy of Pension Coverage Be Balanced Against Financial Sustainability?
By Krzysztof Hagemejer & John Woodall In recent decades many countries have “reformed” their contributory pension schemes, generally strengthening the links between benefit entitlements and the contributions paid over members’ working lifetimes, but primarily seeking to (re)balance them financially, in the face of strains arising from unfavourable labour market or demographic conditions. The result has been reduced benefit entitlements and levels of coverage, however assessed. The impact has been felt, particularly, by those with shorter, broken careers (due for example...