August 2020

13Aug

Nearly half of young people have lost income due to the crisis, UN study finds

Some 42% of young people around the world, who were still working during the pandemic, have seen a drop in income as a result of the coronavirus crisis, a study by the United Nations’ labor body has found. Drew Gardiner, youth employment specialist for the UN’s International Labour Organization, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday that young people were in a “disadvantaged position” in the labor market even before the pandemic hit. This is partly because...

August 13, 2020
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...

July 2020

18Jul

World Population Prospects 2019

By Department of Economic and Social Affairs People, and thus populations, are at the centre of sustainable development. Each of the four global demographic “megatrends”– population growth, population ageing, migration and urbanization – holds important implications for economic and social development and for environmental sustainability. Timely and accurate population estimates and projections allow Governments to anticipate future demographic trends and to incorporate that information into development policies and planning. The 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects is the...

July 18, 2020
Aging, Books
Read more...
17Jul

Empty Planet

By Darrell Bricker, John Ibbitson An award-winning journalist and leading international social researcher make the provocative argument that the global population will soon begin to decline, dramatically reshaping the social, political, and economic landscape For half a century, statisticians, pundits, and politicians have warned that a burgeoning population will soon overwhelm the earth’s resources. But a growing number of experts are sounding a different alarm. Rather than continuing to increase exponentially, they argue, the global population is...

July 17, 2020
Aging, Books
Read more...
17Jul

Does the actuarial adjustment for pension delay affect retirement and claiming decisions?

By Devon Gorry, Kyung Min Lee, Sita Slavov We investigate the impact of more generous terms for delaying state pensions on claiming and labor supply in the United Kingdom using a 2005 policy change. First, we find that the more generous delay terms reduced the fraction of males receiving pensions at the earliest eligibility age and shortly after. While there are also post-policy changes in women’s claiming behavior, further investigation reveals that these changes do not coincide with the...

July 17, 2020
Articles, Pension design, , ,
Read more...
17Jul

World is Facing a Population Bust

In his last book, "Billions and Billions," published in 1997, Carl Sagan wrote: “There is a well-documented worldwide correlation between poverty and high birthrates … exponential population growth slows down or stops when grinding poverty disappears. This is called demographic transition.” More recently, John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker wrote in their book, "Empty Planet": Read also Australia. Low income earners get further support The great defining event of the twenty-first century — one of the great defining events in human...

July 17, 2020
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
10Jul

Age with Care: Long-term Care in Latin America and the Caribbean

By Gianluca Cafagna, Natalia Aranco, Pablo Ibarrarán, María Laura Oliveri, Nadin Medellin, Marco Stampini In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 8 million older people are unable to independently complete at least one basic activity of daily living, such as eating, bathing or showering, or getting in and out of bed. This situation, called care dependence, affects 12% of people over age 60 and nearly 27% of people over age 80 in the region. The demand for long-term...

July 10, 2020
Aging, Books, , ,
Read more...
03Jul

Protecting South Asia’s poor and vulnerable against COVID-19

By Lynne Sherburne Benz, Stefano Paternostro, Zaineb Majoka When India went into lockdown in late March as a result of COVID-19, one of the country’s biggest priorities was to ensure access to food. As millions risked starvation, the government mobilized its existing Public Distribution System (PDS) to give away food rations to over 800 million people, thus averting a catastrophic food crisis. As the coronavirus spreads exponentially across South Asia, food insecurity is just one of the many challenges...

July 3, 2020
Articles, Regulation, System Sustainability, , , , , ,
Read more...

June 2020
26Jun

Emerging economies and COVID-19 Closing in a world of informal and small companies

By Laura Alfaro, Oscar Becerra, Marcela Eslava Emerging economies are characterized by an extremely high prevalence of informality, smallfirm employment and jobs not fit for working from home. These features factor into how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the economy. We develop a framework that, based on accounting identities and actual data, quantifies potential job and income losses during the crisis and recovery for economies with different economic organization structures. Our analysis incorporates differential exposure of jobs across categories...

June 26, 2020
Articles, System Sustainability, , , , ,
Read more...
12Jun

South African Individual Retirement Savings: An Analysis of the Social Factors

By Gizelle Willows This study's primary aim is to determine whether members of a South African tertiary institution's retirement fund are en route to have sufficient retirement savings. Secondly, the results are analysed between different social factors namely: age, gender, race, education level, marital status, and cost of employment. Survey data and information received directly from the retirement fund were used as inputs in a customised model. This method was unique to this study, that is, it was able...

June 12, 2020
Articles, Savings, , ,
Read more...
08Jun

Building better retirement systems in the wake of the global pandemic

By Olivia S. Mitchell In the wake of the global pandemic known as COVID-19, retirees, along with those hoping to retire someday, have been shocked into a new awareness of the need for better risk management tools to handle longevity and aging. This paper offers an assessment of the status quo prior to the spread of the coronavirus, evaluates how retirement systems are faring in the wake of the shock. Next we examine insurance and financial market products that...

June 8, 2020
Articles, Pension design, System Sustainability, , , , , ,
Read more...