July 2024
31Jul

Easing Sri Lanka’s Fiscal Burden. Who Needs a State Pension?

The recent economic crisis has highlighted the need to address weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s economic policies forlong-term structural change. One significant issue is the financial burden of public sector pensions. The Public Services Pensions (PSP) is the largest pension scheme for permanent public sector employees in Sri Lanka. However, its non-contributory nature has become a critical burden on the country, wherein pension benefits are funded directly from government revenue, supported by general taxation. With around 700,000 public sector pensioners,this...

July 31, 2024
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31Jul

Pension Systems (Un) Sustainability and Fiscal Constraints: A Comparative Analysis

By Michael Wickens, Vito Polito & Burkhard Heer Using an overlapping generations model, two new indicators of public pension system sustainability are proposed: the pension space, which measures the capacity to pay for pension expenditures out of labour taxation, and the pension space exhaustion probability reflecting demographic uncertainties. These measures reveal that the pension spaces of advanced economies are strikingly different. Most nations have little scope to further finance pensions out of labour income  taxation over the next thirty years....

July 31, 2024
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12Jul

The Impacts of Raising the Public Pension Eligibility Age on the Lifestyles of Elderly People: Evidence from Japan

By Shinya Inukai With many countries facing rapid population aging, the sustainability of public pensions has become a pressing issue. I evaluate the impacts, including both employment and time allocation, of public pension reform on the lifestyles of the elderly. In Japan, all residents aged 20 or older are covered by the public pension, with eligibility determined mechanically based on age. I focus on the reform raising men's eligibility age from 60 to 61 in 2001 and estimate its impact...

July 12, 2024
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June 2024
18Jun

US. Public pension funding ratios roar back in May — Milliman

The overall estimated funding ratio of the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans bounced back in May thanks to strong investment returns for the month, according to the Milliman 100 Public Pension Funding index. The increase in the funding ratio to 79.4% as of May 31 from the estimate of 77.6% as of April 30 was primarily the result of positive market performance in May, almost completely reversing a weak April for investment returns. The estimated funding ratio at the...

June 18, 2024
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07Jun

Economic & Budgetary Projections for the EU Member States (2022-2070)

By Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs European Economy Institutional Papers are important reports analysing the economic situation and economic developments prepared by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, which serve to underpin economic policy-making by the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. Views expressed in unofficial documents do not necessarily represent the views of the European Commission. Get the report here

June 7, 2024
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07Jun

US. New Issue Brief: Time to Fix Underfunding of Public-Sector Pensions

Public-sector pensions are facing a significant underfunding crisis that has only worsened over the past 25 years despite periods of high-asset returns. This growing burden threatens the financial stability of municipal and state finances, potentially leading to higher taxes or severe cuts to retirees’ benefits and essential services if not addressed promptly. In a new Manhattan Institute issue brief, senior fellow Allison Schrager argues the current high-interest rate environment presents a unique opportunity to set public-sector pensions on a more sustainable path. Improper pension...

June 7, 2024
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May 2024
24May

Most Australians still relying on government pension on retirement

A government pension or allowance was still the main source of personal income at retirement according to the latest statistics from the Australia Bureau of Statistics. Forty-three per cent of retirees relied on a government pension, with 27 per cent relying on superannuation, an annuity or private pension. Bjorn Jarvis, ABS head of labour statistics, said over the past decade the number of people who said they had no personal income has fallen from 25 per cent in 2012-13 down to...

May 24, 2024
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22May

Nigeria. Retired police officers protest unpaid pension in Abuja

RETIRED police officers in Nigeria under the contributory pension scheme, on Tuesday, May 21, expressed their displeasure over several months of unpaid pensions. The retired officers stormed the National Assembly in Abuja, to protest the “severe hardships” they had faced due to the alleged failure of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) to pay their entitlements. The retirees representing various state chapters called on the federal government to remove them from the Contributory Pension Scheme. The retirees, seen with various placards, lamented being...

May 22, 2024
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17May

Female Labor Supply and Rural Pension Eligibility in Brazil

By Gaurav Khanna, Margaret Lay, Stephanie Lee & Benjamin Thompson In 1991, Brazil expanded its rural old-age pension to cover millions of previously uncovered women, conditional on work requirements.  We use a difference-in-differences approach to show that this expansion drastically increased women’s employment by nine percentage points, or 26 percent.  This increase in labor force participation occurred among women who were immediately age-eligible, and among younger cohorts that would be eligible in the future. These results illuminate the capacity of...

May 17, 2024
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17May

How Hidden Costs Undermine Public Pensions in the US

 By Richard Ennis Public pension plans in the US incur exorbitant asset management costs. Most spend a lot and get nothing for it. High cost has hindered efforts to realize their actuarial return requirement. It has resulted in poor performance pretty much across the board. And yet, very few plans provide a full accounting of the costs they incur. Some still fail to net all their investment expenses from the returns they report. High cost is the Achilles heel of...

May 17, 2024
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