November 2019

22Nov

How Would 401(K) ‘Rothification’ Alter Saving, Retirement Security, and Inequality?

By Vanya Horneff, Raimond Maurer, Olivia S. Mitchell The US has long incentivized retirement saving in 401(k) and similar retirement accounts by permitting workers to defer taxes on contributions, levying them instead when retirees withdraw funds in retirement. This paper develops a dynamic life cycle model to show how and whether ‘Rothification’ – that is, taxing 401(k) contributions rather than payouts – would alter household saving, investment, and Social Security claiming patterns. We show that these changes differ importantly...

November 22, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Savings, ,
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22Nov

Fiscal Incidence in Moldova: A Commitment to Equity Analysis

By Alexandru Cojocaru, Mikhail Matytsin, Valeriu Prohnitchi This paper uses methods developed by the Commitment to Equity Institute and data from the Household Budget Survey to assess the effects of government taxation and social spending on poverty and inequality in Moldova. The paper presents the first detailed distributional analysis of the tax and expenditure sides of the fiscal system, examining in particular the contribution of different taxes and transfers to poverty and inequality reduction in Moldova, as well as...

November 22, 2019
Adequacy, Articles, Pension design, , , ,
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15Nov

Fiscal Incidence in Moldova: A Commitment to Equity Analysis

By Alexandru Cojocaru, Mikhail Matytsin, Valeriu Prohnitchi T his paper uses methods developed by the Commitment to Equity Institute and data from the Household Budget Survey to assess the effects of government taxation and social spending on poverty and inequality in Moldova. The paper presents the first detailed distributional analysis of the tax and expenditure sides of the fiscal system, examining in particular the contribution of different taxes and transfers to poverty and inequality reduction in Moldova, as well as...

November 15, 2019
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15Nov

Social Pensions and Market Values: A Conflict?

By Quentin Detienne, Elmar Schmidt Social occupational pension schemes, i.e. compulsory pension schemes that are the result of collective bargaining, fulfil an important social function. At the same time, they seem to conflict with some fundamental single market tenets, such as the European Union (EU) Single Market’s four fundamental freedoms and competition law principles. In this respect, occupational pension schemes in the Member States seem to embody the inherent tensions contained within the EU’s social market economy: a clash...

November 15, 2019
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08Nov

Longevity Risk and Retirement Income Planning

By Patrick J. Collins, Huy D. Lam, Josh Stampfli The past 50 years have seen an abundance of research on retirement planning and longevity risk. Reviewed here is the academic side of the research and its varied viewpoints and nuances. The evolution of retirement risk models, retirement portfolio problems and solutions, and annuities are some of the many topics covered. Get the book here

November 8, 2019
Aging, Books, Investing, Pension design, , ,
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08Nov

A Two-Step Mixed Pension System: How to Reinvent Social Security with the Help of Notional Accounts and Term Annuities

By Inmaculada Domínguez-Fabián,Pierre Devolder, Francisco del Olmo García, Jose A Herce The change in economic and sociodemographic reality, characterized by a continuous increase in longevity, the consequences of the economic crisis, and the lack of adequate adjustments of social security retirement pension systems everywhere, entails risks for workers and the social security systems themselves. Many reforms of public pension systems have been carried out in recent years, based on modifying system parameters and structural changes. Some reforms aim at...

November 8, 2019
Articles, Investing, Pension design, Savings, ,
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04Nov

A micro-macro economic analysis of pension auto-enrolment options

By Maxime Bercholz, Adele Bergin, Tim Callan, Abian Garcia Rodriguez, Claire Keane Like many other countries, Ireland faces challenges in relation to the adequacy and sustainability of pensions. These challenges have been examined in detail in a series of reports (Government of Ireland, 2007; OECD, 2014; Government of Ireland, 2018a). All of these reports identify pension coverage in the private sector as a key issue. Burke and Gilhawley (2018) estimate that only 30% of the private sector in Ireland had a supplementary pension1 in 2017....

November 4, 2019
Books, Books, Pension design,
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October 2019

25Oct

Don’t Save for Retirement: A Millennial’s Guide to Financial Freedom

By Daniel Ameduri Baby boomers are always giving millennials advice on the importance of saving for retirement. But Daniel Ameduri says that the results are in for the retirement experiment of the last 75 years and they’re really bad. When he was twenty-seven years old, Daniel was on the brink of bankruptcy. A decade later, he’s a multi-millionaire, having taught himself about economics, investing, and other money matters that he never learned at school or at home. The expert...

October 25, 2019
Books, Pension design, Savings, , ,
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25Oct

Social Pensions and Market Values: A Conflict?

By Quentin Detienne, Elmar Schmidt Social occupational pension schemes, i.e. compulsory pension schemes that are the result of collective bargaining, fulfil an important social function. At the same time, they seem to conflict with some fundamental single market tenets, such as the European Union (EU) Single Market’s four fundamental freedoms and competition law principles. In this respect, occupational pension schemes in the Member States seem to embody the inherent tensions contained within the EU’s social market economy: a clash...

October 25, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Sustainability, ,
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25Oct

Secure Retirement: Connecting Financial Theory and Human Behavior

By Jacques Lussier Investors fear return uncertainty and drawdowns associated with owning relatively risky asset classes, such as equity. The fact that greater risk is associated with greater expected return does not preclude the possibility that realized returns may be far less than a low-risk asset could provide, even with horizons as long as 5 to 10 years. Fear prompts the average investor to sometimes act against his own best interest. Therefore, the average investor’s portfolio often underperforms a...

October 25, 2019
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