September 2024

Outrage Over Pension Cuts in Indonesia: Key Insights on Contributions and Withdrawal Options

New Pension Program Will Cut Employee Salaries: What You Need to Know The implementation of a new pension program will lead to salary deductions for workers. This mandatory contribution aims to enhance retirement benefits. However, many employees are worried about the impact on their take-home pay. Labor unions are actively voicing their opposition, especially in regions like South Kalimantan. They argue that the additional deductions will strain workers’ finances. Warning! The new pension deductions may significantly affect workers’ salaries. Employees should prepare...

Asia faces $74t retirement income shortfall

Emerging markets in Asia face a $74 trillion pension savings shortfall. Asia may face a retirement income shortfall as those over 60 are expected to make up 25% of Asia Pacific's population, a sharp increase from 14% in 2020, a report by McKinsey revealed. Emerging markets in Asia face a $74t pension savings shortfall, equating to about $50k per worker—11 times the average annual income. In countries like India and Indonesia, pensions cover only 8% of the population. McKinsey said to address the...

UK. Third of retirees overspending amid rising cost of living

Nearly a third of UK adults have admitted to being ‘retirement overspenders’ due to the rising cost of living. Research by PensionBee also revealed 20 per cent of those aged over 55 have consistently spent more than they expected to during their retirements so far. With an additional 11 per cent admitting this had occurred early on in their retirement. Daily living expenses emerged as the largest financial burden for retirees, with 28 per cent citing it as their top item of...

The Average Retirement Age in 2024: US vs. UK

With recent economic challenges and rising costs of living, retirement is on many Americans’ minds. You may be wondering: Is the state of retirement in the U.S. worse than in other countries? That depends on which country you’re talking about. Read on to learn about the average retirement age in the U.S. and UK, plus current retirement processes, to compare the difference.   Earning passive income doesn't need to be difficult. You can start this week. What Is the Average Retirement Age in the US? According to...

August 2024

A Two-Generation Model with Altruism for Reverse Mortgage Demand

By Yunxiao Wang, Katja Hanewald, Zilin (Scott) Shao, Hazel Bateman Reverse mortgage markets remain relatively small internationally, with one frequently cited reason being bequest motives. We study the role of reverse mortgages in intergenerational financial planning as a tool for families to bring forward bequests. We develop a new two-generation lifecycle model with parental altruism to compare the welfare gains of bequests and early bequests (inter vivos gifts) for homeowning parents and adult children seeking to purchase their first home....

A Two-Generation Model with Altruism for Reverse Mortgage Demand

By Yunxiao Wang, Katja Hanewald, Zilin (Scott) Shao & Hazel Bateman Reverse mortgage markets remain relatively small internationally, with one frequently cited reason being bequest motives. We study the role of reverse mortgages in intergenerational financial planning as a tool for families to bring forward bequests. We develop a new two-generation lifecycle model with parental altruism to compare the welfare gains of bequests and early bequests (inter vivos gifts) for homeowning parents and adult children seeking to purchase their first...

July 2024

Elderly Germans Face Rising Poverty Threat

Germany is facing a growing concern over the rising number of elderly citizens living in poverty. Recent investigative reports indicate that a staggering 3.2 million pensioners in the country are at risk of economic hardship, a situation worsened by stagnant wages and insufficient pension benefits. As mentioned in reports from the public broadcaster ARD, nearly one in five, or approximately 18.7%, of Germany's pensioners were classified as being at risk of poverty as of 2017. This alarming statistic highlights...

Breaking the Vicious Circles of Informal Employment and Low-Paying Work

By Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development This report adds two perspectives on informality. First, it disassembles the mechanics of the deleterious links between informal employment, low-paying work and low skills. It shows that informal employment is highly persistent, and that the vulnerability of informal workers is passed on to their children in the absence of adequate education, skills and social protection policy. Second, the report underscores the double burden of informality and low-paying work that a large share of...

2024 Pension adequacy report: Current and future income adequacy in old age in the EU

By European Union  The report’s main focus is on old-age pension systems. It looks primarily at statutory pensions, incorporating the adequacy contribution of supplementary pensions where relevant. The report also looks at the role of survivors’ pensions in providing adequate old-age income for surviving spouses. In the context of its analysis of income inequalities and redistribution mechanisms, the report also considers minimum income provision for older people and how taxation affects income distribution in old age. Given the importance of services...

Career Expectations and Outcomes: Evidence (on Gender Gaps) from the Economics Job Market

By Brooke Helppie McFall, Eric D. Parolin & Basit Zafar This paper investigates gender gaps in long-term career expectations and outcomes of PhD candidates in economics. For this purpose, we match rich survey data on PhD candidates (from the 2008-2010 job market cohorts) to public data on job histories and publication records through 2022. We document four novel empirical facts: (1) there is a robust gender gap in career expectations, with females about 10 percentage points less likely to ex-ante expect to get...