July 2017

02Jul

Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Singapore's First National Non-Contributory Pension

By Yanying Chen & Yi Jin Tan (Singapore Management University) Using a new monthly longitudinal survey of elderly Singaporeans, we precisely time and study the announcement and disbursement effects of an exogeneous permanent income shock on a broad range of subjective well-being domains. The source of this permanent income shock is a new means-tested non-contributory pension, the Silver Support Scheme (SSS). Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that pension recipients experienced improved life satisfaction upon announcement of the SSS; this...

July 2, 2017
Articles, Investing, Labor Market, Savings,
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02Jul

Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Singapore’s First National Non-Contributory Pension

By Yanying Chen & Yi Jin Tan (Singapore Management University) Using a new monthly longitudinal survey of elderly Singaporeans, we precisely time and study the announcement and disbursement effects of an exogeneous permanent income shock on a broad range of subjective well-being domains. The source of this permanent income shock is a new means-tested non-contributory pension, the Silver Support Scheme (SSS). Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that pension recipients experienced improved life satisfaction upon announcement of the SSS; this...

July 2, 2017
Articles, Investing, Labor Market, Savings,
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02Jul

PEPP – Towards a Harmonized European Legislative Framework for Personal Pensions

By Hans van Meerten & Sebastiaan Niels Hooghiemstra LL.M (Utrecht University) In the last couple of years questions arose how the PEPP should ideally be regulated and the European Commission and various interest groups, till now, have not found a solution for all possible problems in developing a common regulatory framework yet. For that purpose, this Report focused on how the PEPP could ideally be regulated. It discussed the PEPP and the PPP, how PEPPs as a ‘wrapper product’ should be...

July 2, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Corporate Governance, Pension design, ,
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June 2017

25Jun

The Causal Effect of Retirement on Health Services Utilization: Evidence from Urban Vietnam

By Thang Dang (University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City) Access to medical services is significantly essential for retaining and improving health status for aging population. Whilst retired individuals tend to have more time for the use of health services, there is only inadequate evidence evaluating the causal effect of retirement on health services utilization. To fulfill this gap in the literature especially from developing countries, this paper estimates the causal effect of retirement on the probability and the frequency...

June 25, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market
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25Jun

Long-Term Effects of Extended Unemployment Benefits for Older Workers

By Tomi Kyyrä & Hanna Pesola (VATT Institute for Economic Research) This paper examines the long-term effects of extended unemployment benefits that older unemployed can collect until retirement in Finland. We consider a reform that increased the age threshold of this scheme from 55 to 57 for people born in 1950 or later. Our regression discontinuity estimates show that postponing eligibility by two years increased employment over the remaining working career by seven months. Despite the corresponding reduction in unemployment,...

June 25, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Pension design
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25Jun

Automatic Enrollment and Choices of Pension Plans: An Experimental Study in Brazil

By Antonio Gualberto Pereira (Universidade Federal da Bahia) & Luís Eduardo Afonso (University of Sao Paulo) One alternative presented in the literature to increase adhesion to pension plans is to modify the default of choices from opt in (to adhere to the plan) to opt out (leave the plan), a nudge typical of the libertarian paternalism (Kahneman, 2002). An experimental design was adopted, adapted from a tool by Hey (2007). The research was made available with the assistance of Questionpro©...

June 25, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Pension design, Regulation
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18Jun

Chapter 19: Individual Biases in Retirement Planning and Wealth Management

By James E. Brewer & Charles H Self III Around the globe, the gradual move from defined benefit pensions to defined contribution pensions has increased the need for individual retirement planning. Examples of this include U.S. savings rates at historic lows, poor retirement prospects for citizens in developed countries, and the disparaging gap between investor returns and market returns. Research indicates that individuals working with a financial advisor generally receive better results than those who do not. Working with a...

June 18, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Pension design, Savings, ,
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18Jun

In-Kind Infrastructure Investments by Public Pensions: The Queensland Motorways Case Study

By Michael Bennon, Ashby H. B. Monk & YJ Cho (Stanford University) OECD countries require billions in infrastructure investment for new projects and the rehabilitation of old assets. Public pensions are likewise underfunded and in need of stable, inflation-linked investment opportunities uncorrelated with the rest of their portfolio, making infrastructure a seemingly strong fit. This has led to calls to facilitate more direct investment by public pension funds in infrastructure. In truth there are many impediments to such programs. Under...

June 18, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Investing, Savings,
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18Jun

What Rates of Productivity Growth Would Be Required to Offset the Effects of Population Aging? A Study of Twenty Industrialised Countries

By Frank T. Denton & Byron G. Spencer (McMaster University) A shift in population distribution toward older ages is underway in industrialised countries throughout the world and will continue well into the future. We provide a framework for isolating the pure effects of population aging on per capita GDP, employ the framework in calculations for twenty OECD countries, and derive the rates of productivity growth required to offset those effects. We consider also some labour-related changes that might provide offsets,...

June 18, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Regulation, ,
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11Jun

Pensions: What Solidarity between Generations?

By Gérard-François Dumont (University of Paris 4 Sorbonne) To understand the fact that solidarity between generations is essential for pensions, Gérard-François Dumont presents a parable inspired by the story of Robinson Crusoe. It shows that it is always the case that assets reduce their purchasing power to release payments to pensioners, whether they are in a distribution or capitalization system. According to the author, "capitalization is a system of financial distribution; Distribution is a system of human capitalization". (more…)

June 11, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, System Sustainability,
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