July 2023
06Jul

Ghana: Govt Owes Pension Schemes Gh¢2.6 Billion… Finance Minister Reveals

The Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, has revealed that government's indebtedness to various pension schemes at the end of May 2023 is GH¢2.63 billion. The amount comprise of Tier 1 of the Controller and Accountant General's Department mechanised payroll, GH¢1.62 billion, Tier 1 of subverted institutions, GH¢188.59 million, Tier 2 of mechanised payroll, GH¢808.21 million and Tier 2 of subvented institutions GH¢6.1million. "Mr Speaker, the government paid GH¢2.67 billion to various pension schemes in...

July 6, 2023
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June 2023
27Jun

U.S. public pension funding dips in May – Milliman

The overall estimated funding ratio of the 100 largest U.S. public pension plans fell to 73.7% as of May 31 from 74.8% a month earlier, according to the Milliman 100 Public Pension Funding index. During the month of May, Milliman estimated that public pension plans had an aggregate investment return of -1%, with an estimated range of -1.8% to -0.3%. "Despite the slight drop in funded status, May marks the eighth month in a row where the funded ratio has stayed...

June 27, 2023
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23Jun

Ghana. Pensioners Bondholders begin third round of picketing

Members of the Pensioners Bondholders Forum have begun a third round of picketing at the Ministry of Finance to demand payments on due coupons, principals, and interest on bonds. The picketing is set to be carried out on Thursdays and Fridays of every week until government honours its obligation to bondholders. Speaking in an interview on the first day of picketing, Dr Adu Anane Antwi, the convener of the Forum, said that although the Government said it has directed the Controller...

June 23, 2023
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16Jun

U.S public pensions are building for the long-term. How pension plans are reacting after a year of shocks

By Ortec Finance U.S. public pension plans have been through a torrid year of investment volatility, rising inflation and increasing interest rates. The Federal Reserve has raised rates nine times in succession taking the rate to 5% - the highest since 2007 – while CPI inflation climbed as high as 9.1% in June 2022. The most recent figure of 4.9% for April is good news but many analysts still expect further Federal Reserve rate rises. The series of economic shocks helps explain...

June 16, 2023
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09Jun

A Complaint Template for Legal Challenges to the Validity of the Statutory ‘Debt Ceiling’

By Robert C. Hockett The Statutory ‘Debt Ceiling’ appearing at 31 USC 3101(b), rooted in the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917 aimed at expanding Treasury financing options during the First World War, is not valid in any application that would occasion default on U.S. sovereign debt, other contractual obligations, or Social Security or Veterans’ pension obligations. There are at least seven mutually reinforcing legal grounds for so saying. These include preemption of such application of the Ceiling by the...

June 9, 2023
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09Jun

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

By Burkhard Heer, Vito Polito & Michael Wickens  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....

June 9, 2023
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May 2023
26May

‘Earned, Not Given’? The Effect of Lowering the Full Retirement Age on Retirement Decisions

By Mathias Dolls & Carla Krolage This paper analyzes behavioral responses to a 2014 reform in the German public pension system that lowered the full retirement age (FRA) of individuals with a long contribution history by up to two years and framed the new FRA as reference age for retirement. Using administrative data from public pension insurance accounts, we first document a substantial bunching response at the FRA exceeding the control group’s bunching by 83%. Second, we show in a...

May 26, 2023
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25May

Jamaica. No big pension increase for former prime ministers

Prime Minister Andrew Holness' decision to decline his 214 per cent salary increase and keep his yearly $9 million pay is binding on all former and future heads of government, the administration has disclosed. The figure is critical for former prime ministers in particular because their pension is tied to the salary of the current officeholder. There are three living former prime ministers - PJ Patterson, Portia Simpson Miller, and Bruce Golding. Information Minister Robert Morgan made the clarification at a post-Cabinet...

May 25, 2023
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19May

Access to Pensions, Old-Age Support, and Child Investment in the People’s Republic of China

By Xiaoyue Shan & Albert Park This paper studies how access to public pensions affects old-age support and child investment in traditional societies. Guided by predictions from an overlapping generations model, we analyze the influences of a new pension program in rural People’s Republic of China, using a difference-in-differences approach. We find that the program crowds out transfers from working-age adults, especially men, to their elderly parents. Interestingly, the impact on child investment significantly differs by child gender. While adult...

May 19, 2023
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05May

The Effects of Non-Contributory Pensions on Material and Subjective Well Being

By Rosangela Bando, Sebastian Galiani & Paul Gertler Public expenditures on non-contributory pensions are equivalent to at least 1 percent of GDP in several countries in Latin America and is expected to increase. We explore the effect of non-contributory pensions on the well-being of the beneficiary population by studying the Pension 65 program in Peru, which uses a poverty eligibility threshold. We find that the program reduced the average score of beneficiaries on the Geriatric Depression Scale by nine percent...

May 5, 2023
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