We value your privacy

We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience, serve personalized ads or content, and analyze our traffic. By clicking "Accept All", you consent to our use of cookies.

Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

February 2017

04Feb

The Role of Social Security in Overall Retirement Resources: A Distributional Perspective

By Alice Henriques & John Sabelhaus During recent decades, the US employer-sponsored retirement system has undergone a major shift from primarily defined benefit (DB)-type plans to primarily defined contribution (DC)-type plans. Furthermore, in the past decade, participation in employer retirement plans has fallen, particularly for younger and lower-income families. In light of this, there is growing concern that wealth accumulation through employer-provided pension plans is falling short, especially for the bottom half of the income distribution. However, focusing only on...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, , ,
Read more...
04Feb

Non-Contributory Pensions Number-Gender Effects on Poverty and Household Decisions

By Miguel Ángel Borrella, Mariano Bosch & Marcello Sartarelli Non-contributory pensions, designed to reduce old-age poverty particularly in countries with low contributory coverage, may induce a variety of household behavioural responses. This paper tests whether they vary with beneficiaries number and gender in Bolivia, one of the countries with the lowest contributory coverage worldwide. Taking advantage of a discontinuity in eligibility at age 60 in the Renta Dignidad pension, we estimate these effects by using a bi-dimensional regression discontinuity design,...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Pension design, Savings, , ,
Read more...
04Feb

How Should the Adequacy of Pension Coverage Be Balanced Against Financial Sustainability?

By Krzysztof Hagemejer & John Woodall In recent decades many countries have “reformed” their contributory pension schemes, generally strengthening the links between benefit entitlements and the contributions paid over members’ working lifetimes, but primarily seeking to (re)balance them financially, in the face of strains arising from unfavourable labour market or demographic conditions. The result has been reduced benefit entitlements and levels of coverage, however assessed. The impact has been felt, particularly, by those with shorter, broken careers (due for example...

February 4, 2017
Adequacy, Articles, System Sustainability, ,
Read more...
04Feb

Sharing High Growth across Generations: Pensions and Demographic Transition in China

By Zheng Michael Song, Kjetil Storesletten, Yikai Wang & Fabrizio Zilibotti Intergenerational inequality and old-age poverty are salient issues in contemporary China. China’s aging population threatens the fiscal sustainability of its pension system, a key vehicle for intergenerational redistribution. We analyze the positive and normative effects of alternative pension reforms, using a dynamic general equilibrium model that incorporates population dynamics and productivity growth. Although a reform is necessary, delaying its implementation implies large welfare gains for the (poorer) current generations, imposing only small...

February 4, 2017
Articles, Labor Market,
Read more...
03Feb

The FinTech Opportunity

By Thomas Philippon This paper assesses the potential impact of FinTech on the finance industry, focusing on financial stability and access to services. I document first that financial services remain surprisingly expensive, which explains the emergence of new entrants. I then argue that the current regulatory approach is subject to significant political economy and coordination costs, and therefore unlikely to deliver much structural change. FinTech, on the other hand, can bring deep changes but is likely to create significant regulatory...

February 3, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, System Sustainability, ,
Read more...
03Feb

Pension Coverage in Kenya: Legal and Policy Framework Required to Enhance Pension Coverage in Kenya

By Nyakundi B. D. Kenya's pension system is fragmented and covers only 15% of the labor force. The enactment of the Retirement Benefits Act in 1997 has not in any significant way impacted on the widening coverage of the pension system. The problem of low coverage is attributable to lack of an effective policy aimed at widening of coverage and the current legal framework which was designed to target participation of formal workers. This paper argues that wide ranging policy...

February 3, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Regulation,
Read more...
ar Arabiczh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanpt Portugueseru Russianes Spanish
en English