June 2018

Pension Markets in Focus

OECD Recent years have witnessed intense pension reform efforts in countries around the globe, often involving an increased use of funded pension programmes managed by the private sector. These funded arrangements are likely to play an increasingly important role in delivering retirement income in many countries and privately managed pension assets will play an increasing role in financial markets, notably as a source of long-term savings. This annual report, which now covers 85 countries, gives an overview of private pension systems worldwide and...

Why Are People Working Longer In The Netherlands?

By Adriaan Kalwij, Arie Kapteyn, Klaas de Vos Labor force participation at older ages has been rising in the Netherlands since the mid-nineteen-nineties. Reforms of the social security and pension systems have often been put forward as main explanations for this rise. However, participation rates above the normal retirement age of 65 have almost tripled for men and quadrupled for women despite the fact that at those ages reforms are unlikely to have had much impact. This suggests other factors...

Towards an Equitable and Sustainable Points System. A Proposal for Pension Reform in Belgium

By Erik Schokkaert (Catholic University of Leuven (KUL)), Pierre Devolder (Catholic University of Louvain), Jean Hindriks (University of London - School of Economics and Finance) & Frank Vandenbroucke (University of Amsterdam) We describe the points system as proposed by the Belgian Commission for Pension Reform 2020–2040. Intragenerational equity can be realised through the allocation of points within a cohort. The intergenerational distribution is determined by fixing the value of a point for the newly retired and a sustainability parameter for...

May 2018

The Legality of Public Pension Reforms in Times of Financial Crisis: The Case of Greece

By Dafni Diliagka The first reactions after the outbreak of the Greek financial crisis were pension reforms and pension shortages. The central concern of this book is to provide a legal framework that allows pensioners to file claims. The book gives an overview of the factors that made pension reforms necessary before and after the financial crisis. It also describes the pension reforms and the individual shortages in pension benefits, which have been phased in by the Greek Parliament since...

Old Age Pensions, in Theory and Practice, with Some Foreign Examples

By William Sutherland Trieste Publishing has a massive catalogue of classic book titles. Our aim is to provide readers with the highest quality reproductions of fiction and non-fiction literature that has stood the test of time. The many thousands of books in our collection have been sourced from libraries and private collections around the world.The titles that Trieste Publishing has chosen to be part of the collection have been scanned to simulate the original. Our readers see the books the...

Population Aging: The Transformation of Societies

By Donald T. Rowland Population Aging: The Transformation of Societies presents an overview and international comparison of the causes, consequences and policy implications of one of the major processes of change in contemporary societies. It provides a foundation for understanding and reflecting on key demographic and social trends, together with related theoretical and policy frameworks that are important in explaining changes and designing informed responses. With particular reference to countries that have the oldest or largest aged populations, the book...

Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World: Working Longer

By Courtney Coile (Wellesley College; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)), Kevin S. Milligan (University of British Columbia (UBC) - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)) & David A. Wise (National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)) This is the introduction and summary to the eighth phase of an ongoing project on Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World. This project, which compares the experiences of a dozen developed countries,...

The Use of Locally Imposed Selective Taxes to Fund Public Pension Liabilities

By Thad Calabrese (New York University (NYU) - Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service) This chapter examines a growing phenomenon in pension funding in which jurisdictions enact a new selective tax or fee, or increase an existing one, to reduce unfunded pension liabilities. Selective sales tax refers to a sales tax confined to a particular commodity or a limited number of commodities, such as a tax on sales of liquor, cigarettes, gasoline, or other petroleum products. Because this...

April 2018

Do pension participants want the freedom to choose or the freedom to snooze?

By Hendrik P. van Dalen and Kène Henkens Individual freedom of choice is a much heralded and cherished principle in democracies. Milton Friedman and colleagues at his alma mater, the University of Chicago, made this a cornerstone of their belief (Friedman & Friedman, 1990). The freedom of choice is the antidote to excessive government interference and an instrument which enables people to realize their goals and discipline agents and organizations. The call for freedom is getting louder as individualization of...

Defined Contribution Pensions: Plan Rules, Participant Choices, and the Path of Least Resistance

By James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian & Andrew Metrick Over the last 20 years, defined-contribution pension plans have gradually replaced defined benefit pension plans as the primary privately sponsored vehicle to provide retirement income. At year-end 2000, employers sponsored over 325,000 401(k) plans with more than 42 million active participants and $1.8 trillion in assets.1 The growth of 401(k)-type savings plans and the associated displacement of defined benefit plans have generated new concerns about the adequacy of employee...