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...

November 2022

México perdió cinco años de esperanza de vida por pandemia de covid

Debido al impacto de la pandemia de covid-19 en Mexico se perdieron cinco años en el indicador de esperanza de vida, esto dependiendo de la densidad de población, ya sea en contextos urbanos y rurales, el cual actualmente ronda los 70 años de edad. Durante la inauguración del Seminario Internacional de Procesos Demográficos y sus Disyuntivas en el Siglo XXI: Hacia una Nueva Carta de Navegación Demográfica, el coordinador del Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados de la Población (CIEAP),...

Desigualdades estructurales y crisis superpuestas en América Latina y el Caribe. ¿Hacia una recuperación transformadora con igualdad?

Por Simone Cecchini Las múltiples desigualdades económicas y sociales que caracterizan a los países de América Latina y el Caribe conspiran en contra de su desarrollo sostenible y tienen una relación directa con la actual crisis económica, social y sanitaria. La pandemia de la COVID-19 y la guerra en Ucrania, sumadas a las brechas estructurales, están dibujando una tormenta perfecta de bajo crecimiento, desocupación, elevada inflación, aumento de la pobreza, el hambre, la desigualdad, el malestar social y la polarización...

October 2022

US. Early retirement took off during the pandemic

Even as many Americans have returned to work over the past year, making up for most of the pandemic losses in the labor force, a sizable number of older workers are choosing to remain on the sidelines. In September, the share of people 55 and older who were working or looking for work was down 1.5 percentage points as compared with February 2020, according to the Labor Department. (For comparison, prime-age workers, or those 25 to 54 years old, are...

Older Workers’ Employment and Social Security Spillovers through the Second Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Gopi Shah Goda, Emilie Jackson, Lauren Hersch Nicholas & Sarah Stith The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a large and immediate drop in employment among US workers, along with major expansions of unemployment insurance and work from home. We use Current Population Survey and Social Security application data to study employment among older adults and their participation in disability and retirement insurance programs through the second year of the pandemic. We find ongoing improvements in employment outcomes among older workers in...

La brecha salarial de género en México: Componentes que explican la brecha antes y durante1 la pandemia del COVID-19

Por Christian De la Luz & Sibyl Italia Pineda Salazar La comparación de los datos de la Encuesta Nacional de Ocupación y Empleo (ENOE) entre 2005 y 2019, muestran que en México se ha registrado una evolución favorable en la participación de las mujeres en el mercado laboral y en sus niveles educativos. Sin embargo, dichas mejoras no se han traducido en una reducción significativa de la brecha salarial de género, ya que en 2019 las mujeres continuaban ganando alrededor...

August 2022

Recessions and Retirement: New Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Courtney Coile & Haiyi Zhang The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the US labor market, leading to an unprecedented loss of 22 million jobs in March and April 2020. Evidence from past recessions indicates that economic downturns are typically associated with an increase in retirements. In this study, we revisit the relationship between recessions and retirement in the COVID-19 era, using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) supplemented by other data on economic and COVID conditions. We find that higher...

No Country for Old Men (or Women): The Impact of Migration on Pension Funding Adequacy and Sustainability

By Thomas Poufinas, James Ming Chen, Charalampos Agiropoulos & George Galanos Retirement security is of paramount importance to working people. Adequate retirement income is also a leading concern for private and public pension systems. Pension funding adequacy measures the ability of pension scheme assets to meet a system’s liabilities. Pension managers accumulate assets primarily from employee contributions. Assets then grow through investment returns. Liabilities consist mainly of benefits promised and paid to pensioners. In several countries, even within the European Union,...

Changes in Retirement Savings During the COVID Pandemic

By Elena Derby, Lucas Goodman, Kathleen Mackie & Jacob Mortenson This paper documents changes in retirement saving patterns at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We construct a large panel of US tax data, including tens of millions of person-year observations, and measure retirement savings contributions and withdrawals. We use these data to document several important changes in retirement savings patterns during the pandemic relative to prior years, and we compare these results to changes in savings patterns during the...

U.S. $7T Retirement Crisis Is Only Getting Worse

Americans have been warned for years of an impending retirement crisis. Yet the situation is getting worse. Even when everything was going right — inflation was nonexistent, interest rates were low and stocks were in an extended bull market — there was a multi-trillion dollar savings shortfall. Read more Inflation Moderately Pressures US Public Pension Liabilities Then came a pandemic, war in Europe, decades-high inflation, the fastest rate-hiking cycle since the early 1980s and fears of a recession. The resulting market turmoil...