June 2022

LGBTQ and Finance

By Sanjukta Brahma, Konstantinos Gavriilidis, Vasileios Kallinterakis, Thanos Verousis & Mengyu Zhang Recent changes in workplace and corporate board diversity policies and a series of court rulings have signalled a fundamental change in the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (henceforth LGBTQ) people in the corporate world. In this paper, we survey the burgeoning literature on the role of sexual orientation in finance. We show that LGBTQ-friendly policies affect organizational outcomes and enhance the quality of corporate governance....

Gay, gray, black, and blue: An examination of some of the challenges faced by older LGBTQ people of color

By Seon Kum Few studies exist that highlight the life experiences of the older LGBTQ person of color. This cohort faces unique challenges in life that have not been explored or investigated extensively, if at all. Older LGBTQ people of color have experienced discrimination based on race, gender, and sexuality in all phases of their lives, often bearing witness to and helping to start various equal rights and social justice movements. In addition to the unique challenges that come with...

May 2022

The National Landscape of State Retirement Benefits. How Good Are Public Retirement Systems at Putting Employees on a Path to Retirement Income Security?

By Jonathan Moody & Anthony Randazzo  Retirement security is ultimately about retirement income. Families and individuals want to know that during their retirement years they will have enough weekly, monthly, or annual income to live comfortably and meet their basic needs. Of course, many people aspire to more than just the basics. Ask even a handful of individuals about how they want to live in retirement, and you’ll hear a wide range of preferences. Expenses can vary from family-to-family, too,...

Progressing Towards Efficiency: The Role for Labor Tax Progression in Reforming Social Security

Progressing Towards Efficiency: The Role for Labor Tax Progression in Reforming Social Security

By Krzysztof Makarski, Joanna Tyrowicz & Oliwia Komada We study interactions between progressive labor taxation and social security reform. Increasing longevity puts fiscal strain that necessitates the social security reform. The current social security is redistributive, thus providing (at least partial) insurance against idiosyncratic income shocks, but at the expense of labor supply distortions. A reform which links pensions to individual incomes reduces distortions associated with social security contributions, but incurs insurance loss. We show that the progressive labor tax...

Top-Income Adjustments and Official Statistics on Income Distribution: The Case of the UK

Top-Income Adjustments and Official Statistics on Income Distribution: The Case of the UK

By Stephen P. Jenkins UK official statistics on income distribution have incorporated top-income adjustments to household survey data since 1992. This article reviews the work undertaken by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Office for National Statistics, and the academic research that influenced them, and reflects on the lessons to learn from the UK experience. Source: SSRN 217 views

The Economic Well-Being of LGBT Adults in the U.S. in 2019

By CLEAR The Federal Reserve Board has conducted the Survey of Household Economic Decisionmaking (SHED) since 2013. In 2019, the survey included LGBTQ people by asking U.S. adults about their sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), enabling for the first time the creation of a picture of the economic well-being of LGBT households using the SHED data. Analysis of the data shows that in 2019: • LGBT adults were more often struggling to get by. Fewer than two-thirds of LGBT adults reported...

The 2022 Pension Answer Book

By Stephen J. Krass A standard in its field, The 2022 Pension Answer Book discusses in detail the full spectrum of pension topics—from qualification requirements to taxation of distributions, from minimum distribution requirements to 401(k) plans. It covers the most up-to-date and significant legislative, regulatory, and case law developments affecting these plans. As a decision-making tool, combining theory and practice-based guidance, The 2022 Pension Answer Book offers insight and clarification on the critical issues affecting pension administration and compliance. In...

What Share of Noncovered Public Employees Will Earn Benefits that Fall Short of Social Security?

What Share of Noncovered Public Employees Will Earn Benefits that Fall Short of Social Security?

By Jean-Pierre Aubry, Siyan Liu, Alicia H. Munnell, Laura Quinby & Glenn Springstead Social Security is designed to serve as the base of retirement support, to be supplemented by employer-sponsored plans. However, approximately one-quarter of state and local government employees – currently, around 5 million workers annually – are not covered by Social Security on their current job. Federal law allows these noncovered workers to remain outside of Social Security if their state or local plan provides comparable benefits. Since...

An Exploratory Study on the Health and Wellbeing of Biracial/Multiracial and Bisexual Older Adults

An Exploratory Study on the Health and Wellbeing of Biracial/Multiracial and Bisexual Older Adults

By Deana Williams Though LGBT aging literature is expanding, gerontological and sexual minority studies have yet to examine the lived experiences of biracial/multiracial and bisexual older adults, despite evidence of distinctive life sequences and health disparities among these groups. This study aimed to: (1) examine the lived experiences of biracial/multiracial and bisexual older adults and (2) identify how these lived experiences shape their health and wellbeing, socially supportive relationships, and community connectedness. Qualitative data were collected via audio-based interviews with...

Assessing Heterogeneity in the Health Effects of Social Pensions Among the Poor Elderly: Evidence from Peru

By Noelia Bernal Lobato, Javier Olivera & Marc Suhrcke This paper exploits the discontinuity around a welfare index of eligibility to assess the heterogeneous health impacts of Peru's social pension program Pension 65, which focuses on elderly poor individuals. The heterogeneity is analysed in terms of the treatment exposure (short vs long run), the accessibility to health care infrastructure (near vs distant facilities), and gender. We find improvements in anaemia, mortality risk markers, cognitive functioning, mental health, and self-reported health....