April 2019

29Apr

Social Security Coverage Around the World: The Case of China and Mexico

By Francisco Perez‐Arce (Åbo Akademi University - Economics & Statistics), María Prados (University of Southern California), Erik Meijer (University of Southern California; RAND Corporation), Jinkook Lee (University of Southern California - Center for Economic & Social Research; Program on Global Aging, Health & Policy, Center for Economic & Social Research; RAND Corporation) We describe the current state and recent trends in the landscape of social security programs in China, Mexico, and India. A common thread across these countries is the...

April 29, 2019
Adequacy, Articles, Slider-Left, Sustainability, , , ,
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15Apr

Workers’ Employment Rates And Pension Reforms In France: The Role Of Implicit Labor Taxation

By Didier Blanchet, Antoine Bozio, Simon Rabaté, Muriel Roger Over the last fifteen years, France has experienced a reversal of older workers’ labor force participation and employment rates. Changes in health, life expectancy or education levels over the period are trend variables and thus cannot explain this “U-shaped” time profile. Pension reforms and associated changes in monetary incentives to retire are a more plausible explanation. Their impact is measured by the implicit tax rate on working longer,...

April 15, 2019
Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, ,
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15Apr

The Dynamism of the New Economy: Non-Standard Employment and Access to Social Security in EU-28

By Sonja Avlijas (LIEPP - Sciences Po) This paper examines the prevalence of non-standard workers in EU-28, rules for accessing social security, and these workers’ risk of not being able to access it. It focuses on temporary and part-time workers, and the self-employed, and offers a particularly detailed analysis of their access to unemployment benefits. It focuses on eligibility, adequacy (net income replacement rates) and identifies those workers which are at the greatest risk of either not receiving benefits or...

April 15, 2019
Articles, Labor Market, , , ,
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March 2019

17Mar

Population Aging, Health Care, and Fiscal Policy Reform: The Challenges for Japan

By Minchung Hsu (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)) & Tomoaki Yamada (Meiji University - School of Commerce) We construct a transition analysis based on a general equilibrium life‐cycle model to investigate the effects of aging, and we evaluate various policy alternatives designed to lessen the negative influence of aging. In particular, we analyze reforms of insurance benefits and tax financing tools that were recently the focus of a great amount of attention and debate in Japan because of...

March 17, 2019
Aging, Articles, Slider-Left, , ,
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07Mar

Reversing Pension Privatization

From 1981 to 2014, thirty countries fully or partially privatized their social security public mandatory pensions (figure 1). Fourteen countries were in Latin America: Chile (first to privatize in 1981), Peru (1993), Argentina and Colombia (1994), Uruguay (1996), the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Mexico and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (1997), El Salvador (1998), Nicaragua (2000), Costa Rica and Ecuador (2001), Dominican Republic (2003) and Panama (2008). Another fourteen countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union embarked...

March 7, 2019
Articles, Regulation, , , ,
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03Mar

Designing Public Policies: Principles and Instruments

By Michael Howlett The second edition of this highly regarded book provides a concise and accessible introduction to the principles and elements of policy design in contemporary governance. It examines in detail the range of substantive and procedural policy instruments that together comprise the toolbox from which governments choose tools to resolve policy problems and the principles and practices that lead to their use. Guiding readers through the study of the many different kinds of instruments used by governments in carrying...

March 3, 2019
Books, System Sustainability,
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03Mar

Understanding the Spatial Disparities and Vulnerability of Population Aging in China

By Yang Cheng (Beijing Normal University (BNU)), Siyao Gao (Beijing Normal University (BNU)), Shuai Li (Beijing Normal University (BNU)), Yuchao Zhang (Independent), Mark Rosenberg (Queen's University) Understanding the regional pattern of population aging in China enables rational policy making to address the challenges of inequity in social welfare and care resources among the east–central–west regions and rural–urban areas of China. This study uses census data in 2000 and 2010, and aging population ratios, annual increase rates, and spatial auto-correlation analysis...

March 3, 2019
Aging, Articles, Labor Market,
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February 2019

15Feb

Pension Policy and the Financial System

By DAVID S. SCHARFSTEIN This paper examines the effect of pension policy on the structure of financial systems around the world. In particular, I explore the hypothesis that policies that promote pension savings also promote the development of capital markets. I present a model that endogenizes the extent to which savings are intermediated through banks or capital markets, and derive implications for corporate finance, household finance, banking, and the size of the financial sector. I then present a...

February 15, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Slider-Left, System Sustainability, , ,
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10Feb

Bridging Public Pension Funds and Infrastructure Development

By Clive Lipshitz (Tradewind Interstate Advisors) & Ingo Walter (New York University - Leonard N. Stern School of Business; New York University (NYU) - Department of Finance) Underfunding of U.S. public pensions is a chronic policy issue that has become more severe over time. Public pension obligations were estimated at $5.96 trillion at the end of 2017 supported by assets of $4.33 trillion — a shortfall of $1.63 trillion and a ‘funded-ratio’ of 72.6%. We consider the sustainability of public...

February 10, 2019
Articles, Investing, Sustainability, ,
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03Feb

State Automatic Enrollment IRAs After the Trump Election: Are They Preempted by ERISA?

By Kathryn L. Moore (University of Kentucky College of Law) In recent years, a number of states have sought to close the retirement savings funding gap by enacting legislation mandating that employers that do not sponsor a voluntary pension plan for their employees automatically enroll their employees in a state-administered IRA program. This article focuses on the most serious legal challenge these programs face: ERISA preemption.  The article begins by providing an overview of the state automatic enrollment IRA programs....

February 3, 2019
Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, Savings, , ,
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