September 2019

17Sep

ECB Has $51 Billion Fund Questioning Future of Inflation Hedging

The European Central Bank’s latest round of easing sent a signal to institutional investors that their inflation hedges may be growing more pointless by the day. In the northernmost corner of the euro zone, a $51 billion pension fund says ECB President Mario Draghi isn’t giving his industry much hope that things will improve. “So far, the less you’ve hedged, the better off you’ve been,” Reima Rytsola, the chief investment officer of Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co., said in...

September 17, 2019
News, Slider, ,
Read more...
13Sep

The Price of Inequality

Senior Fellow Joseph E Stiglitz America currently has the most inequality, and the least equality of opportunity, among the advanced countries. While market forces play a role in this stark picture, politics has shaped those market forces. In this best-selling book, Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz exposes the efforts of well-heeled interests to compound their wealth in ways that have stifled true, dynamic capitalism. Along the way he examines the effect of inequality on our economy, our...

September 13, 2019
Books, System Sustainability, ,
Read more...
06Sep

Institutional Responses to Aging Populations and Economic Growth: A Panel Data Approach

By Patrick M. Emerson, Shawn D. Knabb, Anca-Ioana Sirbu Will an aging population lower economic growth? Economists are generally concerned that the increase in life expectancy could lower economic growth, however, theory does not make a prediction. As life expectancy increases, so should household savings, which results in more physical capital per worker. This will stimulate economic growth. However, as the retired population share increases, this may reduce spending on children as more resources are transferred to the elderly....

September 6, 2019
Aging, Articles, ,
Read more...
04Sep

Giant Norway pension fund weighs Brazil divestment over Amazon deforestation

KLP, Norway’s largest pension fund, with over US$80 billion in assets, is saying it may divest from transnational commodities traders operating in Brazil such as Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge and Cargill, if they work with producers who contribute to deforestation. KLP has $50 million in shares and loans with the firms. KLP is also reaching out to other investors to lobby them to use their financial influence to curb Amazon deforestation via supply chains. On August 28, Nordea,...

September 4, 2019
News, Slider, , , , ,
Read more...

August 2019
30Aug

Why is Inequality Higher Among the Old? Evidence from China

By Katja Hanewald, Ruo Jia, Zining Liu This paper studies income inequality in old age and its development over the life cycle. We develop a theoretical framework and a new empirical method to show that income is more unequally distributed in old age than in working age. We combine the regression-based inequality decomposition method and the three-step mediating effect test to analyze the transmission of income inequality from initial socioeconomic differences to income inequality in old age. Our study...

August 30, 2019
Adequacy, Aging, Articles, Pension design, , , , ,
Read more...
16Aug

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

By Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics and Director Poverty Action Lab Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo Two practical visionaries upend the most common assumptions about how economics works in this gripping and disruptive portrait of how poor people actually live. Why do the poor borrow to save? Why do they miss out on free life-saving immunizations, but pay for unnecessary drugs? In Poor Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two award-winning MIT professors, answer these questions based...

August 16, 2019
Books, Investing, Savings, System Sustainability, ,
Read more...
16Aug

Income Inequality and Government Transfers in Mexico

 By Frederic Lambert, Hyunmin Park We analyze microdata from Mexico's survey on household income and expenditures (ENIGH) to study the evolution of income inequality in Mexico over 2004-16, identify its sources, and investigate how it was affected by government social policy. We find evidence of only a small decline in inequality over this period. The observed decline may be attributed to government transfers, notably targeted cash transfers (Prospera) and non-contributory pensions. In 2016, those two programs accounted for more...

August 16, 2019
Articles, Regulation, Slider-Left, , , , , ,
Read more...
09Aug

Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World

By Adam Tooze In September 2008 the Great Financial Crisis, triggered by the collapse of Lehman brothers, shook the world. A decade later its spectre still haunts us. As the appalling scope and scale of the crash was revealed, the financial institutions that had symbolised the West's triumph since the end of the Cold War, seemed - through greed, malice and incompetence - to be about to bring the entire system to its knees. Crashed is a brilliantly original...

August 9, 2019
Adequacy, Books, Investing, System Sustainability,
Read more...
09Aug

The Political Economy of Social Security Reform

By Michael Boskin, Diego Perez, Daniel Bennett We identify which types of Social Security reforms are supported when people vote in their financial self-interest, under alternative economic and demographic projections and voting proclivity assumptions. While 40% of voters have negative lifetime net transfers, less than 10% have negative future transfers under the unsustainable status quo. Framing the problem as a choice between reforms is necessary for any to receive majority support. Delayed reforms are often preferred, but immediate tax...

August 9, 2019
Articles, Regulation, System Sustainability, ,
Read more...

July 2019

26Jul

Aging Policy and Politics in the Trump Era: Implications for Older Americans

By Edward Alan Miller, Pamela Nadash, Michael K. Gusmano The surprise election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States marks a singular turning point in the American republic – not only because of his idiosyncratic approach to the office, but also because the Republican Party now holds the presidency and both houses of Congress, presenting a historic opportunity for change. The role of older Americans has been critical in both shaping and reacting to this...

July 26, 2019
Aging, Books, Pension design, , ,
Read more...