December 2022

Inferring Occupation Arduousness from Poor Health Beyond the Age of 50
21Dec

Inferring Occupation Arduousness from Poor Health Beyond the Age of 50

By: Vincent Vandenberghe In the absence of a direct description of occupation arduousness, this paper shows how it can be inferred from poor health beyond the age of 50. Using retrospective lifetime data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) including the respondents’ professional career described with ISCO 2-digit, this paper finds a statistically significant link between many occupations and the risk of poor health beyond the age of 50. Next, we quantify the relative contribution...

December 21, 2022
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05Dec

British government looks at pension rules to retain health workers

Britain's government is launching a consultation into how to amend pension rules for workers in the National Health Service to help retain more staff, at a time when the sector faces strikes over pay this month that could halt some procedures. The governing Conservative Party has long promised to sort out a health service which has struggled to recover after being stretched to its limits during the COVID-19 pandemic and now faces strikes by thousands of nurses and ambulance workers. "The...

December 5, 2022
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November 2022
11Nov

UK. Ten years of Automatic Enrolment achieves over £114bn pension savings

In 2021, employees across the UK saved £114.6 billion into their pensions. This is a real terms increase of £32.9 billion compared to 2012, when Automatic Enrolment was introduced. The figures reveal how the policy has transformed pensions saving over the last ten years for people from Sterling to Southend, by normalising workplace pension saving, establishing a culture of retirement saving for a new generation, and helping foster a greater sense of security in later life. More than 10.7 million employees...

November 11, 2022
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10Nov

Over 84,000 Nigerians enrolled in micro pension plan –PENCOM

The National Pension Commission (PenCom), yesterday revealed that over 84,000 Nigerians have enrolled in the ongoing Micro Pension plan. This was even as the Commission reiterated that it will continue to embark on massive awareness to ensure more Nigerians key into the initiative. The Head, Micro Pensions Department at PenCom, Dauda Ahmed, disclosed this to newsmen at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Ahmed noted that the commission has had interactions with would-be-...

November 10, 2022
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09Nov

US. Rising Interest Rates Change the Math on Pensions for Some Would-Be Retirees

Higher interest rates are good for our cash and checking accounts but are not always good for pension holders. Rising interest rates have an inverse relationship to a pension’s lump-sum value. As interest rates increase, the value of a pension holder’s lump sum could decrease. Because of this, I am seeing more pension holders who want to take a lump sum do so now vs. waiting. I am also seeing annuity rates improve with rising interest rates, pushing annuity income...

November 9, 2022
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04Nov

Too much choice counterproductive in retirement systems, new report finds

Giving pension savers the freedom to choose their own investments is beneficial, but including too much choice in a national pension system is counterproductive, according to a new report assessing different retirement frameworks. In the white paper produced by US financial services firm Morningstar – An Evaluation of Retirement Systems Around the World – analysts reach a number of conclusions, saying some countries are better than others at limiting choice; that auto-enrolment programmes are effective and that efforts to engage...

November 4, 2022
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03Nov

Risk Pooling and Precautionary Saving in Village Economies

By Marcel Fafchamps & Aditya Shrinivas We propose a new method to test for efficient risk pooling that allows for intertemporal smoothing, non-homothetic consumption, and heterogeneous risk and time preferences. The method is composed of three steps. The first one allows for precautionary savings by the aggregate risk pooling group. The second utilizes the inverse Engel curve to estimate good-specific tests for efficient risk pooling. In the third step, we obtain consistent estimates of households' risk and time preferences using...

November 3, 2022
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03Nov

How technology can support pensions for the underserved

New technologies, including central bank digital currencies, can help to better distribute and protect wealth PROVIDING pension support for workers in the informal sector has always been a challenge. At a recent Green Shoots session held at Prudential Singapore’s office, panellists discussed how the use of technology and digital tokens can help facilitate the distribution of micro pensions, and what challenges remain. Micro pensions refer to small sums of money saved by self-employed individuals, that are then invested to yield...

November 3, 2022
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October 2022
28Oct

Optimal Savings and Portfolio Choice with Risky Labor Income and Reference-Dependent Preferences 

By Servaas van Bilsen, Roger J. A. Laeven & Theo Nijman This paper explores the joint impact of reference-dependent preferences and non- tradable risky labor income on optimal savings and portfolio decisions. We develop a non-trivial solution procedure to determine the optimal policies. Our results reveal that the impact of permanent labor income shocks on both the optimal savings rate and the optimal portfolio share is more pronounced under reference- dependent preferences than under CRRA preferences. In particular, we find...

October 28, 2022
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19Oct

A leisurely retirement is further out of reach for most South Africans

Retirement. What does the word mean to you? For the enviable few who have built up a decent nest egg, retirement represents a life of leisure as compensation for years worked. But that is not the reality for most South Africans. When 10X Investments published its first South African Retirement Reality Report in 2018, it highlighted how poorly prepared working South Africans were for retirement. Subsequent reports, including the latest, released recently, have shown that the outlook is worsening by...

October 19, 2022
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