February 2017

04Feb

Living Faithfully in an Unjust World: Compassionate Care in Russia

By Melissa L. Caldwell This simple inscription graces the elegant bronze sculpture of a dog, foot raised in the air to scratch his neck, that rests in the entrance to Moscow’s Mendeleevskaia metro station. The dog commemorated in the sculpture was a stray, or more specifically, one of Moscow’s metro dogs, a uniquely Russian breed of canine that travels the city on public transportation, often snoozing undisturbed on subway and bus seats, and surviving on the food and makeshift shelters...

February 4, 2017
Books, Savings
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04Feb

Privatizing Pensions: The Transnational Campaign for Social Security Reform

By Mitchell A . Orenstein Most Americans know of President George W. Bush’s 2005 proposals for new pension reforms to privatize Social Security, but few are aware of a conversation that took place on September 11, 1997, between then Texas Governor Bush and José Piñera, a former Chilean Secretary of Labor and Social Security. Piñera is an internationally known advocate of private, individual pension savings accounts who led the effort to replace Chile’s social security system with individual accounts in...

February 4, 2017
Books, System Sustainability, , , ,
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04Feb

How does pension eligibility affect labor supply in couples?

By Rafael Lalive & Parrotta Pierpaolo Many OECD countries are reforming their pension systems. We investigate how pension eligibility affects labor supply in couples. Inspired by a theoretical framework, we measure how the sharp change in the pension eligibility of both partners affects labor force participation. We find that both partners leave the labor force as they become eligible for a pension. The effect of their own pension eligibility is 12 percentage points for women and 28 percentage points for...

February 4, 2017
Adequacy, Aging, Books, Labor Market
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04Feb

Stress Tests for Defined Benefit Pension Plans: A Primer

By Gregorio Impavido Stress testing is a useful and increasingly popular, yet sometimes misunderstood, method of analyzing the resilience of financial systems to adverse events. This paper aims to help demystify stress tests and illustrate their strengths and weaknesses. Using an Excel-based template with institution-specific data, readers are walked through the basics of liability valuation and stress testing of assets and liabilities of a typical defined benefit plan. Full Content: EconBiz

February 4, 2017
Books, Regulation, Supervision, System Sustainability,
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04Feb

Redesigning pension systems: the institutional structure of pension systems should follow population developments

By Marek Gora For decades, pension systems were based on the rising revenue generated by an expanding population (demographic dividend). As changes in fertility and longevity created new population structures, however, the dividend disappeared, but pension systems failed to adapt. They are kept solvent by increasing redistributions from the shrinking working-age population to retirees. A simple and transparent structure and individualization of pension system participation are the key preconditions for an intergenerationally just old-age security system. Full Content: EconBiz

February 4, 2017
Articles, Books, Labor Market, Pension design, Regulation
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January 2017