February 2017

04Feb

Pension Fund Reform and European Financial Markets

By E. Phillip Davis Pension reform is widely seen as essential in order to defuse the difficulties EU governments would otherwise face in respect of their social security pension systems in a context of population ageing. Particularly when such reform involves funding of future pensions, it may have radical implications for European financial markets, entailing important changes in the demand for financial assets by the private sector and qualitative developments in capital markets and banking which may impinge on banks...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Investing, Regulation,
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04Feb

New Architectures in the Regulation and Supervision of Financial Markets and Institutions: The Netherlands

By Henriëtte Prast & Iman Van Lelyveld In recent years, several European Union member states have modified the institutional design offinancial supervision. These reforms pose the question which considerations have led to the different models chosen in these countries. We analyse the considerations in the Netherlands leading to the choice in 2002 of the twin -peaks model of financial supervision. The new model is based on the objectives of supervision. Thus, a separate authority is responsible for conduct-ofbusiness supervision, whereas...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Regulation, Supervision, ,
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04Feb

Rethinking the Financial Design of the World Bank

By Devesh Kapur & Arjun Raychaudhuri Since their inception, through 2012, the institutions comprising the World Bank group have been involved in lending nearly a trillion dollars. In this paper, we focus on the IBRD, which is the core of the World Bank. The IBRD has the potential to continue to grow and be an important player in official financial flows, supporting critical long-term development projects with large social returns, in sectors ranging from infrastructure, social sectors, or environment. The paper argues that this is...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Regulation
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04Feb

The Impact of Taxes and Social Spending on Inequality and Poverty in Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay (Spanish) – Working Paper 427

By Nora Lustig Using standard fiscal incidence analysis, this paper estimates the impact of fiscal policy on inequality and poverty in thirteen countries in Latin America around 2010. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay are the countries which redistribute the most and El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras redistribute the least. Contributory pensions are significantly equalizing in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay and also in Chile, Costa Rica and Ecuador but, in the latter, their effect is small. In the rest...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Regulation,
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04Feb

The Performance of Social Security Contributory and Tax-Financed Pensions in Central America, and the Effects of the Global Crisis

By Carmelo Mesa-Lago Sr. Over the last 30 years, Latin America has pioneered structural pension reforms. This article focuses on a representative regional sample of seven Central American countries with diverse levels of development (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) studying contributory and tax-financed pensions as well as recent pension reforms. It comparatively assesses system performance regarding five social security principles: unity; universal coverage; adequacy of benefits; equal treatment, solidarity and gender equality; and financial sustainability....

February 4, 2017
Articles, Regulation, System Sustainability,
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04Feb

The Effect of Workplace Pensions on Household Saving: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Taiwan

By Tzu-Ting Yang Population aging causes financial imbalance in pay-as-you-go public pension programs.To remedy this problem while ensuring the adequacy of retirement savings for employees, many countries complement or substitute for public pensions by regulating workplace pensions. This paper exploits a pension reform in Taiwan that has mandated, since 2005, that all private-sector employers contribute at least 6% of wages to employees' individual pension accounts monthly. I use the workers in the unaffected sector as a comparison group and employ...

February 4, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Regulation,
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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...

February 4, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, Labor Market, Regulation,
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04Feb

Default Investment Strategies in a Defined Contribution Pension System: A Pension Risk Model Application for the Chilean Case

By Félix Villatoro, Solange Berstein & Olga Fuentes In a defined contribution pension system, one of the main risks faced by members refers to the investment of funds. In this context, we discuss which is the most suitable risk measurement for the affiliates to the pension system. Different life-cycle investment strategies are evaluated under this measure for different types of workers. We point out the importance of designing well-suited default investment options in light of the economic behavior of members,...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Regulation, Supervision,
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04Feb

Governance and Performance Measurement of Pension Supervisory Authorities

By Fiona Stewart, John Ashcroft & Nina Paklina The governance, oversight and performance measurement of financial supervisory authorities are increasingly recognized as important topics – not least due to the recent financial crisis and perceived problems in (and lack of) the regulatory oversight of financial institutions. Yet this is a relatively under-researched area, particularly in relation to pension supervision. This paper therefore attempts to combine theoretical material from a range of financial sectors along with practical examples from the pensions...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Corporate Governance, Regulation, Supervision,
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04Feb

Managing and Supervising Risks in Defined Contribution Pension Systems

By Fiona Stewart & John Ashcroft Defined contribution (DC) plans are playing a larger role in pension systems around the world. Pension supervisory authorities are consequently asking if their oversight approaches need to adapt to this development – given that the risks within DC systems are born by the plan members themselves? This paper highlights the key challenges for DC supervisors, outlining the different mechanisms which can be used to control risks within DC systems, and how the use of these...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Regulation, Supervision,
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