December 2020

COVID-19 crisis, a wake-up call on social protection for workers

The need for universal social protection in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has been underlined at a virtual conference of trade union leaders from national trade union confederations across continents. Workers’ representatives at the Fourth meeting of the “Social Protection, Freedom and Justice for Workers Network” on 9 December, explained how their organizations’ have contributed to the formulation of national social protection responses to the COVID-19 crisis. They discussed trade union advocacy strategies for social protection at the...

Depopulation, Aging, and Living Environments: Learning from Social Capital and Mountainous Areas in Japan (Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences)

By Kenji Tsutsumi This book provides perspectives on depopulated areas and regional social capital from positivistic field surveys. Among the developed countries of the world, Japan has a very small amount of national land, with almost 70% of it being in mountainous locations. Concentration of populations and economic capital into large metropolitan areas along with many depopulated and population-aged regions in the mountainous parts can be seen in the country. A very clear regional disparity has arisen in Japan, especially...

The Age Profile of Life-Satisfaction after Age 65 in the U.S

By Péter Hudomiet, Susann Rohwedder Although income and wealth are frequently used as indicators of well-being, they are increasingly augmented with subjective measures such as life satisfaction to capture broader dimensions of individuals’ well-being. Based on data from large surveys of individuals, life satisfaction in cross-section increases with age beyond retirement into advanced old age. It may seem puzzling that average life satisfaction would be higher at older ages because older individuals are more likely to experience chronic or...

Intergenerational Mobility of Health in India and Its Implications to Elderly Care

By E. Sownthara Rajan To understand the effect of education of children as an intervention to improve elderly health and suggest the sector of elderly who needs state support. This finding will help in locating a sector of elderly where the targeted geriatric care and elderly support can be provided. There is a prevalent conversation in academic literature about growing elderly population around the world which is estimated will be 22 per cent of the world population by 2050...

Latin America’s Lost Decades The Toll of Inequality in the Age of COVID-19

By Luis Alberto Moreno During the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, in March 2020, Guayaquil, Ecuador’s business capital of some three million people, was in trouble. By a twist of fate, more than 20,000 Ecuadorians had just returned home from their seasonal vacations. Many had come from Italy and Spain, two coronavirus hot spots, with the earliest and most deadly outbreaks of COVID-19. President Lenín Moreno understood that the threat was serious but opted, at first, not to close...

Time for U.S. to address savings crisis for workers

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has sketched out ambitious plans to reinvigorate the pandemic-battered economy. But without addressing a festering savings crisis, efforts to revitalize the middle class are doomed to fail. The U.S. savings and retirement system is broken, and desperately needs an overhaul to give Americans an opportunity to build lifetime financial resilience. The economic ravages of a pandemic mean that a national conversation in the U.S. on change is imperative, starting with ways to move towards more universal...

FinTech In The Time Of COVID: What Financial Services Companies Need To Know

Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in early 2020, consumers and the business community have had to navigate new realities. The pandemic has dramatically changed the ways in which we interact, presenting challenges that were rarely, if ever, previously contemplated. Some industries have been affected profoundly, while others are naturally better suited to withstand the evolving pandemic landscape. Financial technology (FinTech) companies are a good example of an industry well positioned to thrive in this environment. Given the...

Asset management CEO arrested in Taiwan pension fund scandal

The CEO and other executives of one of Taiwan's largest asset management companies are being held incommunicado after being questioned over an alleged national labor fund investment scandal, the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office said Friday (Dec. 11). The office launched the third stage of its bribery investigation on Thursday (Dec. 10). A Ministry of Labor official responsible for labor fund management was arrested two weeks ago for allegedly engaging in stock speculation. You Wei-wen (游迺文), who had been working...

US. 4 Public Pension Funding Strategies Besides Employer Contributions

Maybe it’s time for pension plans to explore other funding strategies aside from public employer contributions. Plan sponsors typically use the annual required contribution (ARC) or the actuarially determined employer contribution (ADEC) to meet public pension liabilities. But a number of states have found success experimenting with lesser-known methods. It could be useful for other public retirement programs to consider these strategies, according to a report released this week from the National Institute on Retirement Security. While resilient...

New York’s $226 Billion Pension Fund Is Dropping Fossil Fuel Stocks

New York State’s pension fund, one of the world’s largest and most influential investors, will drop many of its fossil fuel stocks in the next five years and sell its shares in other companies that contribute to global warming by 2040, the state comptroller said on Wednesday. Read also Exxon Under Pressure From New Activist Fund With $226 billion in assets, New York’s fund wields clout with other retirement funds and its decision to divest from fossil fuels could accelerate...