November 2024

Real-World Shocks and Retirement System Resiliency

By Olivia S. Mitchell, John Sabelhaus & Stephen P. Utkus Growing awareness of real-world shocks including market downturns, health surprises, and labor market readjustment is calling into question the ability of global retirement systems to remain healthy and sustain future retirees. Financial and labor market stresses are shaping how older workers fare as they head into retirement, and how younger workers must prepare financially for their futures. These shocks come on top of long-standing concerns surrounding rising longevity, along with...

August 2024

Impact of COVID-19 on Healthy Life Expectancy of Older Adults in the Region of the Americas

The Region of the Americas has experienced a significant decline in the health life expectancy (HALE) of older adults at age 60 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. New data from the WHO Global Health Observatory reveals that the HALE at 60 years old was reduced from 16.61 years in 2019 to 15.21 years in 2021 in the region. This dramatic decline underscores the severe impact of the pandemic on older populations, reversing years of advancements in public health and longevity. The...

July 2024

Tendencias y desafios en las políticas públicas para el bienestar del adulto mayor: Un análisis desde la perspectiva en México

Por Priscila Alejandra Vera Zamora El presente documento tiene como objetivo examinar las políticas públicas de envejecimiento en México, con el fin de comprender su alcance, impacto y desafíos. Es importante destacar que el envejecimiento de la población es un fenómeno global que también afecta a México, y se ha visto acentuado por la pandemia de COVID-19. Se realiza un análisis exhaustivo de los antecedentes históricos y la evolución de las políticas de envejecimiento en el país. Se explorará cómo...

World Social Protection Report 2020-22: Social protection at the crossroads – in pursuit of a better future

By International Labour Organization This ILO flagship report provides a global overview of recent developments in social protection systems, including social protection floors, and covers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on new data, it offers a broad range of global, regional and country data on social protection coverage, benefits and public expenditures. Following a life-cycle approach, the report analyses progress with regard to universal social protection coverage, with a particular focus on achieving the globally agreed 2030 Agenda for...

March 2024

Fiscal Stimulus or Debt Relief: The Effect of Federal Pandemic Aid on State and Local Pensions

By Grace Brang, Sewin Chan & Travis St. Clair Between 2020-2021, the U.S. federal government passed four major pieces of legislation that included nearly $1 trillion in aid to state and local governments. One concern with distributing federal stimulus in the form of intergovernmental transfers is that subnational governments may use the aid to pay down unfunded pension liabilities or other debt rather than preserve employment. We examine the effect of fiscal stimulus passed in response to Covid-19 on public...

Financial Fragility, Financial Resilience, and Pension Distributions

By Robert L. Clark & Olivia S. Mitchell We evaluate Americans’ financial robustness during the Covid-19 pandemic, using measures of financial resilience and financial fragility derived from US surveys of persons age 45-75 from 2020 to 2022. We analyze which factors were associated with resilience and fragility, discuss how these measures changed during the pandemic, and assess whether pre-pandemic resilience led to better outcomes during the period. Results show that stronger resilience was protective in terms of financial fragility, and financial literacy...

April 2023

Retirement Savings Behaviours and Covid-19: Evidence from Thailand

By Paul Gerrans, Sunatharee Lhaopadchan & Sirimon Treepongkaruna This paper utilises administrative data from members of the Thai Government Pension Fund to examine voluntary contributions and investment plan change. We find low overall incidence of both behaviours which increased only modestly during the onset of COVID-19. While the major finding is that members are in the minority if they engage in the behaviour regardless of gender, salary, balance, or experience in the fund, the relative probability varies systematically by member...

March 2023

COVID-19 Private Pension Withdrawals and Unemployment Tenures

By Tristram Sainsbury, Robert V. Breunig & Timothy Watson This is the first study to evaluate the effects of early pension withdrawal policies on tenures on unemployment payments in the COVID-19 context. We use a novel set of linked whole-of-population administrative records to examine more than half-a-million Australians who found themselves newly on an unemployment payment in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimate that receiving a lump sum of up to A$10,000 from superannuation accounts at the...

Covid-19 en América Latina y México: brechas del bienestar

Por Carlos Barba Solano Este trabajo aborda empíricamente las brechas estructurales del bienestar reveladas por la epidemia de Covid-19 en cuatro países de América Latina: Argentina, Costa Rica, México y Panamá. Para ello, aborda diversos ámbitos: el sanitario, el económico, el del empleo y el de la protección social, particularmente en el ámbito de la afiliación a los sistemas de pensiones, la mayor o menor incidencia de la crisis en el ascenso de la pobreza y la pobreza extrema y la capacidad para responder a ese repunte, la agudización de las...

December 2022

The Underpensioned Index 2022 Edition

By The Pensions Policy Institute This report, the third in the series, provides an updated version of the Index, alongside recent data illustrating changes, particularly in the labour market and pension saving, that have been experienced by underpensioned groups since the first Index. Recognising that the current economic landscape is challenging, some of these changes may reflect current circumstances rather than long-term trends, and some of the policies that may be suggested as potential remedies to the underpensioned challenge may not be appropriate to enact during the...