May 2018

Endogenous Retirement Behavior of Heterogeneous Households Under Pension Reforms

By Axel H. Börsch-Supan (Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA)), Klaus Härtl (Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA)), Duarte Nuno Leite (Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy; Universidade do Porto - CEF.UP - Center for Economics and Finance at UP) & Alexander Ludwig (Goethe University Frankfurt - Research Center SAFE; University of...

April 2018

Implications of Behavioural Economics for Mandatory Individual Account Pension Systems

By Waldo Tapia & Juan Yermo In individual account pension systems, members bear the risks and consequences of their investment decisions. If participants behave as predicted by economic theory, such responsibility would be welfare enhancing as members would invest and hold a portfolio of financial assets with a risk-return combination consistent with their investment horizon, degree of risk aversion and the portfolio of other assets they hold, including their human capital and, where relevant, their home. Behavioural economists and empirical...

Faulty Transmissions: Howe Demographics Affect Monetary Policy in Canada

By Steve Ambler (University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) - Centre de recherche sur l'emploi et les fluctuations économiques (CREFÉ)) & Jeremy Kronick (C.D. Howe Institute) Over the past decade, inflation in many countries has been tepid, despite rock-bottom interest rates and different forms of unconventional stimulative monetary policy, including quantitative easing. For its part, Canada has averaged 1.5 percent inflation over this period, below the 2 percent target. This Commentary asks what role demographics, in particular an aging population,...

The Relation Between the Migration, Population Aging, Labor Force Productivity and Economic Growth: An Analysis for Bulgaria

By Hamit Can (Technical University of Sofia) & Venelin Terziev (Vasil Levski National Military University; University of Ruse) In this study, the relationship between population, elderly population and economic growth is analyzed theoretically, taking into account the demographic change of the Bulgarian population and the more aging phenomenon. Thus, the change in the age structure of the Bulgarian population was investigated and the factors affecting the growth of the relationship between economic growth were investigated. Developed countries are trying to...

Pensions: More Information, Less Ideology : Assessing the Long-Term Sustainability Ofeuropean Pension Systems : Data Requirements, Analysis and Evaluations

By Tito Boeri,‎ Axel Borsch-Supan,‎ Agar Brugiavini,‎ Richard Disney,‎ Arie Kapteyn &‎ Franco Peracchi Europeans are living longer, and fewer now remain in the labour force as they grow older. Many European countries have responded to the ensuing financial pressure by reforming their public pension systems and health care programmes. There is considerable uncertainty as to the effects of these reforms - as they typically do not alter the unfunded nature of public welfare arrangements and this uncertainty is itself...

Political Preferences and the Aging of Populations: Political-economy Explanations of Pension Reform

By Oliver Pamp Oliver Pamp analyzes the likelihood and extent of pension reforms from a political-economy perspective. It is shown that voters’ preferences for or against reforms are influenced by a societies’ demographic development, the generosity of its existing public pension scheme and its electoral system. The author extensively reviews existing formal models of pension systems, discusses their merits and limitations, and develops a three-period overlapping generations model. The model’s insights regarding individual reform preferences are then put into the...

February 2018

Political Viability of Intergenerational Transfers. An Empirical Application

By Gianko Michailidis (University of Barcelona) & Concepcio Patxot (University of Barcelona - Department of Economic Theory) Public intergenerational transfers (IGTs) may arise because of the failure of private arrangements to provide optimal economic resources for the young and the old. We examine the political sustainability of the system of public IGTs by asking what the outcome would be if the decision per se to reallocate economic resources between generations was put to the vote. By exploiting the particular nature...

January 2018

Eurasian Economic Perspectives: Proceedings of the 20th Eurasia Business and Economics Society Conference

By Mehmet Huseyin Bilgin,‎ Hakan Danis,‎ Ender Demir & Ugur Can This volume presents selected papers on recent management research from the 20th Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conference, which was held in Vienna in 2016. Its primary goal is to showcase advances in the fields of public economics, regional studies, economic development and inequality, and economic policy-making. Reflecting the contemporary political climate, many of the articles address the effectiveness, relevance and impact of European Union policies. In addition,...

The Devil You Know: A Survey Examining How Retail Investors Seek Out and Use Financial Information and Investment Advice

By Christine Sgarlata Chung (Albany Law School) Everyday, people across the United States make decisions that will affect their financial futures — e.g., borrowing money to buy a house, go to college, or start a business; investing in the stock market to save for retirement; using check cashing services or payday lenders rather than accounts at banks or credit unions for day-to-day banking needs, and the like. Traditional tenets of financial economics and investment theory assume that people make fully...

Macroeconomic Implications of Changes in Social Security Rules

By Bilal Bagis (Bingol University; Istanbul 29 Mayis University Department of Economics) The Turkish social insurance system has been feverishly debated for years, particularly through its burden on the economy. The most recent reform is an attempt to neutralize the deterioration within the social security system and its effects on the economy. After the recent reform, ‘the way that retirement benefits are calculated’ is changed unfavorably for workers and the minimum age for retirement is increased. In particular, for an...