October 2019

Brazil Senate approves pension reform in first-round vote

Brazil’s Senate approved the main text of a pension reform bill in a first-round vote on Tuesday, clearing another key hurdle for the government’s bid to narrow its massive budget gap. The main text passed with a vote of 56 in favor - a comfortable margin above the 49 votes required - with 19 opposed and one abstention. Only 76 of 81 senators were present. The Senate is expected to consider amendments to the bill on Wednesday before it...

Japan. World’s Largest Pension Fund Reappoints Mizuno as CIO

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund reappointed Hiromichi Mizuno as its investment chief overseeing $1.47 trillion in assets. Mizuno, whose term was extended to March 31 after expiring Monday, captained sweeping changes to the investment strategy of the world’s largest pension fund over the past five years. He became the GPIF’s first chief investment officer in January 2015, managing the fund’s shift to stocks from domestic debt, while advocating assets that incorporate environmental, social and governance factors. The fund will...

Cuba’s works to address population ageing

The statistics speak for themselves: almost 30 percent of the Cuban population will be over 60 by the end of the next decade. There are several causes for this fact. The increase in life expectancy, which has reached 78 years for men and 82 for women, according to the basic indicators published by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 2018, as well as low levels of sustained fertility and a demographic dynamic marked by a negative net migration...

Global aging crisis: We’re all getting on

People on the planet are getting older. Developed countries are already struggling to deal with rapidly aging populations. According to demographic information released recently by the United Nations, by 2050 one of every six people alive will be over 65. To consider this phenomenon, let’s analyze the populations of three large, industrialized countries — the U.S., Japan and China. The life expectancy of Americans in the year 1900 was only about 47. Today it’s about 79, an increase of...

September 2019

UK. State pension could rise by 4% next year – giving elderly £351 extra a year

If you reached state pension age before April 6 in 2016, you'll be receiving the old state pension, which means your payments would rise from £129.20 to £134.35 per week - or an extra £267.28 per year, insurer Aegon says. The state pension is currently protected by the so-called triple lock, which ensures it rises by at least the same rate as the cost of living. It means that the state pension increases either by 2.5 per cent a...

Australia. A simpler system would be super

In the past year, reports by the Productivity Commission and the banking and financial services royal commission have prompted intense and commendable consideration about the direction of Australia’s retirement and savings policies. Superannuation should not be as cruelly complex as it is. While the system’s basic concept is elegant – providing workers with a compulsory employer-paid super contribution equivalent to at least 9.5 per cent of salary – the confounding rules, layers of costs, tax benefits and snags are...

Japan’s public pension fund to hike investment in foreign bonds

Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund plans to expand its investment in foreign bonds. The move has been prompted by increased difficulty in managing funds in Japanese government bonds due to the Bank of Japan's negative interest rate policy. The expected increase in foreign-bond buying by one of the world's largest institutional investors may impact the foreign exchange market. The GPIF wants to change its asset management plan so that it can treat foreign bonds as domestic bonds if they...

Women and Labour Market Dynamics: New Insights and Evidences

By Balwant Singh Mehta, Ishwar Chandra Awasthi This book addresses women’s changing role in and contributions to the Indian labour market. It explores how feminist theories and frameworks have changed over time and gradually been supplanted by new ones. The book explores the structural shift in women’s employment from farm to non-farm jobs in services and industries, both theoretically and empirically. Further, it examines the steady rise of women in high skilled or ‘new economy’ sectors like information and...

Corporate Governance and Value Creation in Japan: Prescriptions for Boosting Roe

By Ryohei Yanagi This is the first book to furnish a root cause of the low valuation of Japanese listed companies by using, as qualitative evidence, unique global investor surveys, which are rarely available for Japanese companies. Also contained in this book as quantitative evidence is empirical research with regression analysis implying a positive correlation between corporate governance and value creation in Japan. The author explains the rationale underlying the suggestion of the Ito Review on return on equity...

Japan. Investors Await Naming of CIO at World’s Largest Pension Fund

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund will likely announce next week whether its chief investment officer will continue to manage the monolith’s $1.48 trillion in assets. Hiromichi Mizuno, whose term will end on Sept. 30, captained sweeping changes to the investment strategy of the world’s largest pension fund over the past five years. He became the GPIF’s first CIO in January 2015, overseeing the fund’s shift to stocks from domestic debt, while advocating assets that incorporate environmental, social and governance...