September 2021
24Sep

One Country, Two Systems: Evidence on Retirement Patterns in China

By John Giles, Xiaoyan Lei, Gewei Wang, Stephen Yafeng Wang, Yaohui Zhao This paper documents the patterns and correlates of retirement in China using a nationally representative survey, the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). After documenting stark differences in retirement ages between urban and rural residents, the paper shows that China's urban residents retire earlier than workers in many OECD countries and that rural residents continue to work until advanced ages. Differences in access to generous pensions and...

September 24, 2021
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23Sep

When phased retirement could work out

Retirement doesn’t have to be a drastic cut from a full-time job to no job at all. You may still want to work, just not as much — especially if you aren’t financially ready to retire. The gradual reduction of hours known as “phased retirement” could be the answer, and it can be achieved either through an official policy at your employer or in a more informal fashion. In fact, 45% of U.S. workers envision reducing their work hours in a phased...

September 23, 2021
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17Sep

Demographics and Automation

By Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo We argue theoretically and document empirically that aging leads to greater (industrial) automation, because it creates a shortage of middle-aged workers specializing in manual production tasks. We show that demographic change is associated with greater adoption of robots and other automation technologies across countries and with more robotics-related activities across U.S. commuting zones. We also document more automation innovation in countries undergoing faster aging. Our directed technological change model predicts that the response of...

September 17, 2021
Aging, Articles, Innovation,
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03Sep

World Social Protection Report 2020–22

By ILO Despite progress in recent years in extending social protection in many parts of the world, when the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic hit many countries were still facing significant challenges in making the human right to social security a reality for all. This report provides a global overview of progress made around the world over the past decade in extending social protection and building rights-based social protection systems, including floors, and covers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In...

September 3, 2021
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August 2021
31Aug

Focusing on ‘What Should MENA Pension Systems Look Like for Next 50 Years’ Annual Arab Pensions Conference 2021 Convenes in Manama

How should we design the MENA pension systems for the next 50 years? How do we want our children and their children to retire one or two generations from today? This is the theme or big question the highly attended annual Arab Pensions Conference 2021 will be tackling in its next edition on the 16th and 17th of November. Read also Does it Matter to be Informal? Type of employment and political opinions in the MENA region Hosted in Manama digitally...

August 31, 2021
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26Aug

Retirement and Voluntary Work Provision: Evidence from the Australian Age Pension Reform

By Rong Zhu This paper examines the empirical link between retirement and the supply of volunteer labor, using panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. To identify the causal impact, we exploit a major reform of the Australian Age Pension which has significantly changed the retirement incentives of older people. We find positive and significant effects of retirement status on the voluntary work provision of older men and women. Longer time spent in retirement...

August 26, 2021
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25Aug

Ireland. Pensions gap widens as pandemic deepens the divide

Psychologists say we have very little appreciation or concept of ourselves in the future. In other words, our future selves are strangers to each of us. This lack of relationship with our older selves partly explains why we are so bad at planning for the longer term, such as saving towards retirement. According to research published in recent weeks by Standard Life, just under half of people of working age here have an occupational pension here. That's down from just over half at...

August 25, 2021
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12Aug

Social Security Wealth, Inequality, and Life-cycle Saving: An Update

By John Sabelhaus, & Alice Henriques Volz Social Security wealth (SSW) is the present value of future benefits an individual will receive less the present value of future taxes they will pay. When an individual enters the labor force, they generally face a lifetime of taxes to pay before they will receive any benefits and, thus, their initial SSW is generally low or negative. As an individual works and pays into the system their SSW grows and generally peaks somewhere...

August 12, 2021
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06Aug

Death and Taxes: Why Longer Lives Cost Money

By Christopher Snowdon The British population is getting older. In 1948, life expectancy was 68. Thanks to healthier lifestyles and medical advances, it is now 81 and is expected to rise to 87 by the end of the next decade. The rapid growth of the elderly population will put a strain on healthcare, social care and welfare provision. The Office for Budget Responsibility predicts that health spending in the UK will rise from 6.2 per cent of GDP in 2019/20 to...

August 6, 2021
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03Aug

It’s time to give essential workers the protections they deserve

The world's essential workers have kept things running during the pandemic. But many still lack the protections they deserve, such as maternity pay, pensions or paid sickness leave. An upcoming summit, Essential for Recovery, will give these workers a voice and a space in which to address corporate and social leaders. Justina Kgoele has been picking waste in South Africa for the last 25 years. Her income sustains her family, and her work helps to protect children in her community from picking...

August 3, 2021
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