December 2023

Priorities for social security Global 2022 Trends, challenges and solutions

By International Social Security Association The report Priorities for social security – Global 2022: Trends, challenges and solutions presents a global perspective on social security developments and trends, challenges and innovations, based on the series of reports for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe. The global report is presented in a new and interactive format, a digital, web-based publication that allows members of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) to easily navigate between sections of interest. The...

Charting a Course Towards Universal Social Protection: Resilience, Equity, and Opportunity for All

By World Bank Group Charting a Course Towards Universal Social Protection: Resilience, Equity, and Opportunity for All, known as the Social Protection and Jobs Compass updates the World Bank strategy for social protection amid rapid change both within the sector and beyond. The Compass puts at its heart the vision of universal social protection. It recognizes that the progressive realization of universal social protection, which ensures access to social protection for all whenever and however they need it, is critical...

November 2023

Social Security Programs and Retirement around the World

By Axel Börsch-Supan & Courtney C. Coile This ninth phase of the International Social Security project, which studies the experiences of twelve developed countries, examines the effects of public pension reform on employment at older ages. In the past two decades, men’s labor force participation at older ages has increased, reversing a long-term pattern of decline; participation rates for older women have increased dramatically as well. While better health, more education, and changes in labor-supply behavior of married couples may...

Ghana. GMA demands retirement salary for members, improved conditions of service

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) is demanding that government put in place measures that will ensure all of its members continue to receive a salary even after retiring. The President of the Association, Dr. Frank Serebour tabled the demand at the 65th General Meeting of the Association on Monday, November 13. In his address, Dr. Frank Serebour said the conditions of service of doctors must also be improved. “We need to be protected from workplace hazards, we need to be given accessible...

Aging, Healthcare System, and Interest Rates

By Reona Hagiwara Over the past few decades, the Japanese economy has experienced the widening gap between returns on liquid bonds and illiquid capital (i.e., the liquidity premium) due to a secular decline in the real interest rate and a slight increase in the capital return. This paper explores the role of the health or medical expenditure risk in the increase in the premium, using a general equilibrium overlapping generations model with heterogeneous agents that differ in health status and...

October 2023

Iran’s Health Ministry Warns of Ageing Population

Iran's Deputy Health Minister Hossein Farshidi issued a warning about the country's ageing population, claiming it will double within the next 20 years. Speaking on World Elderly Day Farshidi said the demographic change is happening much faster than in many developed countries, where it took over a century to see such a rise in the elderly population. He attributed the trend to global increases in life expectancy and significant reductions in fertility rates during the 20th century. He stressed that Iran has experienced similar...

September 2023

The Demographic Outlook: 2022 to 2052

By Congressional Budget Office The size of the U.S. population, as well as its age and sex composition, affect the economy and the federal budget. For example, the size of the working-age population affects the number of people employed; likewise, the size of the population age 65 or older affects the number of beneficiaries of Social Security and other federal programs. The Congressional Budget Office projects the population in future years by projecting fertility, net immigration, and mortality. (In this report,...

July 2023

US. To Fix the Care Economy, the United States Should Look Internationally

The care economy and the role of caregiving in unpaid and paid work have been in the spotlight recently in the United States. In 2021, the proposed Build Back Better plan would have invested $400 billion in the care economy—including long-term care services under Medicaid, paid family and medical leave, and better pay for home and child care workers—but failed to pass after some legislators equated it with socialism. A recent executive order that integrates more supportive caregiving policies...

The 2021 Ageing Report: Underlying Assumptions and Projection Methodologies

By Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs & Economic Policy Committee With a view to ensuring the sustainability of public finances in the EU, the ECOFIN Council charged the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) with producing a new set of long-term budgetary projections by 2021, on the basis of new population projections to be provided by Eurostat. Safeguarding the sustainability of public finances requires that the analysis is based on reliable, comparable information on possible challenges to fiscal sustainability, including strains...

June 2023

Kenya govt mulls mandatory contributions to retirement medical insurance schemes

The Kenyan government says it will review the current framework for post-retirement medical insurance schemes to make contributions to them mandatory by members and sponsors. The goal is to sustain access to healthcare services by retirees. The plan is part of proposals contained in the draft National Retirement Benefits Policy by the Retirement Benefits Authority (RBA. The draft was released for public feedback last week, according to a report by Business Daily Africa. A post-retirement medical scheme can be set up as...