September 2017

01Sep

Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement

By Annamaria Lusardi, Olivia S. Mitchell & Noemi Oggero We analyze older individuals’ debt and financial vulnerability using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). Specifically, in the HRS we examine three different cohorts (individuals age 56–61) in 1992, 2004, and 2010 to evaluate cross-cohort changes in debt over time. We also use two waves of the NFCS (2012 and 2015) to gain additional insights into debt management and older individuals’ capacity...

September 1, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Savings, Slider-Left, , ,
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August 2017

27Aug

Self-Awareness, Financial Advice and Retirement Savings Decisions

By Anders Anderson (Swedish House of Finance) & David T. Robinson (Fuqua School of Business,) Using a financial literacy survey of Swedish pension investors matched to actual retirement savings decisions, we break respondents into three groups: those who are financially literate, those who mistakenly believe they are financially literate, and those who know that they are not. Investors with mistaken beliefs are more likely to work with mass-market advisors who steer them into high-fee funds. They underperform as a result....

August 27, 2017
Articles, Investing, Labor Market, Savings
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27Aug

The State of Public Pension Funding: Are Government Employee Plans Back on Track?

By Andrew G. Biggs (American Enterprise Institute) The public-sector pension industry is claiming a comeback from losses suffered during the Great Recession. But this recovery is greatly exaggerated: even years past the end of the recession, most pension sponsors are unable to their full annual contributions, and pensions are taking as much investment risk as ever. The first step to effective pension reforms is an honest, accurate view of the costs and risks that public plans impose on government budgets...

August 27, 2017
Articles, Funding, Management, Savings, Slider-Left,
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13Aug

The Macroeconomic Impact of Fertility Changes in an Aging Population

By Neha Bairoliya, Ray Miller (Harvard University) & Akshar Saxena (Harvard University - T.H. Chan School of Public Health) We assess the impact of continued low fertility in China, versus a rebound in fertility due to the relaxation of the one child policy, on demographic and macroeconomic outcomes in a dynamic general equilibrium framework. We use a rich model of human capital investment, public health insurance, pensions, private savings, and intra-family transfers to support the consumption of young and elderly...

August 13, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Savings, , , ,
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06Aug

The Role of Self-Control on Retirement Preparedness of US Households

By Kyoung Tae Kim (University of Alabama), Jae Min Lee (Minnesota State University) & Eunice O. Hong (Sungshin Women's University) We examine the self-control problems of U.S households and their effects on households’ retirement preparedness based on the Behavioral Life-Cycle Hypothesis. Using the 2010 Survey of Consumer Finances dataset, the level of retirement adequacy was estimated with income replacement ratio (IRR), and only 42% of households were adequately prepared for retirement. Results from logistic regression analysis indicated that households with...

August 6, 2017
Aging, Articles, Pension design, Savings, Slider-Left,
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06Aug

How Do Local Labor Markets Affect Retirement?

By Leora Friedberg (University of Virginia), Michael Owyang (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis), Wei Sun (Renmin University of China) & Anthony Webb (Boston College) Compared with prime-age workers, older workers face an easier path out of the labor force if they lose their jobs during a recession. However, premature job exits or earnings losses in the years leading up to retirement may be particularly devastating to retirement savings. The authors analyze the impact of recent business cycles on retirement...

August 6, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Savings
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01Aug

El ahorro en México desde 1960

Durante las últimas décadas el tema del ahorro ha figurado como un punto central en las discusiones académicas y entre los responsables de formular las políticas económicas en diversos países y organismos internacionales. Experiencias internacionales recientes en algunos países contribuyeron a reavivar el debate sobre la importancia que tendría el ahorro para garantizar un crecimiento sostenido. Leer más: AQUÍ

August 1, 2017
Books, Labor Market, Savings, Spanish
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July 2017

23Jul

Life-Cycle Earnings Curves and Safe Savings Rates

By Derek Tharp (Kansas State University) & Michael E. Kitces (The Kitces Report & Nerd's Eye View) Traditional analyses of recommended savings ratios and safe savings rates (SSRs) typically assume constant real earnings growth throughout the one’s career. However, data on the life-cycle earnings patterns of millions of U.S. workers suggests that earnings growth does not occur at a constant rate that matches inflation. Instead, earnings tend to increase at a decreasing rate during the early years of one’s career...

July 23, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Savings,
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23Jul

Retirement Security in an Aging Society

By James M. Poterba The share of the U.S. population over the age of 65 was 8.1 percent in 1950, 12.4 percent in 2000, and is projected to reach 20.9 percent by 2050. The percent over 85 is projected to more than double from current levels, reaching 4.2 percent by mid-century. The aging of the U.S. population makes issues of retirement security increasingly important. Elderly individuals exhibit wide disparities in their sources of income. For those in the bottom half of...

July 23, 2017
Aging, Articles, Investing, Savings, , ,
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16Jul

Liquidity and Solvency in Pay-as-You-Go Defined Contribution Pension Schemes: A Continuous OLG Sustainability Framework

By Jennifer Alonso-García (University of New South Wales) & Pierre Devolder (Catholic University of Louvain) Notional Defined Contribution pension schemes are defined contribution plans which are pay-as-you-go financed. From a design viewpoint, the countries where NDCs have been implemented cannot guarantee sustainability due to the choice of notional return paid to the contributions and the indexation rate paid to pensions. We study how the scheme should be designed to achieve liquidity and solvency with a limited set of assumptions in...

July 16, 2017
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, Savings,
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