September 2024
06Sep

Improving Pension Information: Experimental Evidence on Learning Using Online Resources

By Denise Laroze, Gabriela Fajardo, Charles Noussair, Ximena Quintanilla, Paulina Granados, Pedro Vallette & Mauricio López-Tapia Deciding what to do with one's pension funds is a high-stakes, one-shot decision. Retirement schemes are often described in technical jargon that few people understand. We consider whether the learning process can be eased by providing information in video format (vs. the standard textual format) and by changes to the user interface of the websites on which individuals learn about their pension options. The...

September 6, 2024
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06Sep

Sustainable Personal Finance : Planning for an Eco-Friendly Future

By Nur Wardina Azhar This study explores the emerging field of sustainable personal finance, focusing on strategies for planning an eco-friendly financial future. As environmental concerns become increasingly urgent, individuals are seeking ways to align their financial decisions with sustainability goals. This research examines the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into various aspects of personal financial planning, including budgeting, investing, risk management, and retirement planning. The study analyzes contemporary issues such as green investing, eco-friendly insurance options,...

September 6, 2024
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06Sep

Financial Inclusion, Inequality, and Retirement Trends Among Older Workers

By Issac Marcelin & Wei Sun The study develops a financial inclusion index comprising three dimensions: usage, barriers, and access to financial resources. It employs a Principal Component Analysis to determine the weights of each dimension. This index helps assess the impact of financial inclusion on various factors like ethnic groups, minorities, human capital, retirement, wealth outcomes, and mental well-being. Our research reveals new psychological and sociological impacts of accessing financial products. Households with higher financial inclusion scores are likelier...

September 6, 2024
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August 2024
30Aug

A Two-Generation Model with Altruism for Reverse Mortgage Demand

By Yunxiao Wang, Katja Hanewald, Zilin (Scott) Shao, Hazel Bateman Reverse mortgage markets remain relatively small internationally, with one frequently cited reason being bequest motives. We study the role of reverse mortgages in intergenerational financial planning as a tool for families to bring forward bequests. We develop a new two-generation lifecycle model with parental altruism to compare the welfare gains of bequests and early bequests (inter vivos gifts) for homeowning parents and adult children seeking to purchase their first home....

August 30, 2024
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30Aug

Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) Schemes: Assessing Capacity for Alternative Investments

By Aili Chen, CFA As pension systems adapt to changing economics and demographics, there is growing interest in collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes as they offer a different approach to retirement savings compared to defined benefit (DB) schemes. Instead of providing a guaranteed pension payment, CDC schemes provide workers with a pot of money to use in retirement, alleviating corporate sponsors of the responsibility and cost associated with providing lifetime guaranteed benefit payments. The size of the pension pot can...

August 30, 2024
Pension design, ,
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30Aug

A Two-Generation Model with Altruism for Reverse Mortgage Demand

By Yunxiao Wang, Katja Hanewald, Zilin (Scott) Shao & Hazel Bateman Reverse mortgage markets remain relatively small internationally, with one frequently cited reason being bequest motives. We study the role of reverse mortgages in intergenerational financial planning as a tool for families to bring forward bequests. We develop a new two-generation lifecycle model with parental altruism to compare the welfare gains of bequests and early bequests (inter vivos gifts) for homeowning parents and adult children seeking to purchase their first...

August 30, 2024
Articles, Pension design, , ,
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30Aug

Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) Schemes: Assessing Capacity for Alternative Investments

By Aili Chen, CFA  As pension systems adapt to changing economics and demographics, there is growing interest in collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes as they offer a different approach to retirement savings compared to defined benefit (DB) schemes. Instead of providing a guaranteed pension payment, CDC schemes provide workers with a pot of money to use in retirement, alleviating corporate sponsors of the responsibility and cost associated with providing lifetime guaranteed benefit payments. The size of the pension pot can...

August 30, 2024
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July 2024
31Jul

Sexual Orientation and Financial Well-Being in the United States

By Christopher S. Carpenter, Kabir Dasgupta, Zofsha Merchant & Alexander Plum We study the relationship between financial well-being and sexual orientation in the United States using Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) data for 2019-2022. We document that people who are lesbian, gay, and bisexual (or LGB) have significantly more difficulty managing financially than similarly situated heterosexual individuals—and this pre-dated the COVID-19 pandemic. Differences are found across a broad array of current and future financial well-being outcomes, including retirement...

July 31, 2024
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19Jul

Pension Reforms, Expectations, and Labour Market Behaviour

By Tabea Bucher-Koenen, Irene Ferrari & Yuri Pettinicchi This study examines how expectations about institutional settings and their reform affect middleaged individuals’ labour market behaviour in the context of these reforms. We exploit time and cross-country variation in pension regulations in six European countries. We show that, following a 1-year increase in the pension eligibility age (SEA), individuals expect to claim their pensions around 3.6 months later on average - adjustments are larger among women compared to men. Individuals with...

July 19, 2024
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05Jul

Pensions for Migrants – Leveraging the Renda Success

By Arun Muralidhar, Leandro Sarai & Sid Muralidhar Since migrants typically come from developing countries, with weak currencies, and are considered informal workers in developed countries, with hard(er) currencies, they slip through the economic and social cracks. Even if they earn a reasonable income, they do not have access to the formal financial sector and hence have no retirement security (much like informal workers in developed or developing countries). Brazil’s digitally-enabled, through Tesouro Direto, RendA+ retirement income bond, designed along the...

July 5, 2024
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