November 2017

12Nov

Finance-Informed Citizens, Citizen-Informed Finance: An Essay Occasioned by the International Handbook of Financial Literacy

By Lauren E. Willis (Loyola Law School Los Angeles) Throughout the world, the dominant discourse treats “financial literacy” as both necessary and sufficient to improve the well-being of individuals and society. This essay argues that financial literacy is neither, and that promoting financial literacy is a perverse way to address the inadequate retirement funding, overindebtedness, financial crises, and other social ills that have inspired governments and educators to pursue it. In its place, this essay suggests that the aim of...

November 12, 2017
Adequacy, Aging, Labor Market, , ,
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03Nov

What are the effects of expanding a social pension program on extreme poverty and labor supply ? evidence from Mexico’s pension program for the elderly (English)

By Clemente Avila Parra & David Ricardo Escamilla Guerrero In 2013, Mexico's Social Pension Program for the Elderly was expanded by changing its eligibility threshold from age 70 to age 65. Using pooled cross-sectional data from Mexico's National Household Income and Expenditure Survey, the exogenous variation around eligibility age was exploited to uncover the causal effects of this expansion on extreme poverty and labor supply of the newly eligible population, and to explore potential transmission mechanisms. Applying quasi-experimental methods, results...

November 3, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, Slider-Left, , , ,
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03Nov

What are the effects of expanding a social pension program on extreme poverty and labor supply ? evidence from Mexico's pension program for the elderly (English)

By Clemente Avila Parra & David Ricardo Escamilla Guerrero In 2013, Mexico's Social Pension Program for the Elderly was expanded by changing its eligibility threshold from age 70 to age 65. Using pooled cross-sectional data from Mexico's National Household Income and Expenditure Survey, the exogenous variation around eligibility age was exploited to uncover the causal effects of this expansion on extreme poverty and labor supply of the newly eligible population, and to explore potential transmission mechanisms. Applying quasi-experimental methods, results...

November 3, 2017
Articles, Labor Market, Pension design, Slider-Left, , , ,
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03Nov

The Nation’s Retirement System: A Comprehensive Re-Evaluation Is Needed to Better Promote Future Retirement Security

By Charles A. Jeszeck, Margie K Shields, Justine Augeri, Christina Cantor, Gustavo Fernandez, Jennifer Gregory, Adam Wendel, Seyda Wentworth (Government Accountability Office) The U.S. retirement system, and the workers and retirees it was designed to help, face major challenges. Traditional pensions have become much less common, and individuals are increasingly responsible for planning and managing their own retirement savings accounts, such as 401(k) plans. Yet research shows that many households are ill-equipped for this task and have little or no...

November 3, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Regulation, , ,
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03Nov

The Nation's Retirement System: A Comprehensive Re-Evaluation Is Needed to Better Promote Future Retirement Security

By Charles A. Jeszeck, Margie K Shields, Justine Augeri, Christina Cantor, Gustavo Fernandez, Jennifer Gregory, Adam Wendel, Seyda Wentworth (Government Accountability Office) The U.S. retirement system, and the workers and retirees it was designed to help, face major challenges. Traditional pensions have become much less common, and individuals are increasingly responsible for planning and managing their own retirement savings accounts, such as 401(k) plans. Yet research shows that many households are ill-equipped for this task and have little or no...

November 3, 2017
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, Regulation, , ,
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October 2017

27Oct

Retirement Age Effects of Pension and Salary Reforms: Evidence from Wisconsin Teachers

By Barbara Biasi (Princeton University) Public sector employees in the US receive a large part of their lifetime compensation in the form of defined benefit pensions, financed in part with employees’ salary contributions. Combined with different wage structures, these pension plans can affect workers’ decisions on the optimal retirement age and, in turn, the composition of the workforce. In this paper I study the retirement effects of a reform which increased all Wisconsin teachers’ contribution to the pension fund, and...

October 27, 2017
Articles, Funding, Regulation, Slider-Left, System Sustainability, , , ,
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27Oct

A New Labour Ecosystem in the Sharing Economy: A Platform for Growth?

By Marta Santos Silva (University of Bremen) The role of the traditional labour market is being challenged by globalisation and modern technology, particularly the unprecedented and generalised use of smartphones. Online platforms facilitating the on-demand economy are radically changing the prospects for the jobs of the future, which will be less regulated and more inclusive. This paper focuses on online ridesharing platforms, particularly Uber as international market leader, and their potential for combating social inequality and developing the transport industry. Online ridesharing platforms...

October 27, 2017
Adequacy, Aging, Articles, Labor Market, ,
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25Oct

Recreating Sustainable Retirement: Resilience, Solvency, and Tail Risk (Pension Research Council Series)

by Pension Reseach Council (Author), Olivia S. Mitchell (Editor), Raimond Maurer (Editor), P.Brett Hammond (Editor) The financial crisis and the ensuing Great Recession alerted those seeking to protect old-age security, about the extreme risks confronting the financial and political institutions comprising our retirement system. The workforce of today and tomorrow must count on longer lives and deferred retirement, while at the same time it is taking on increased responsibility for managing retirement risk. This volume explores new ways to think about,...

October 25, 2017
Books, Management, Pension design, Regulation, ,
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September 2017

24Sep

Pension Schemes, Taxation and Stakeholder Wealth: The USS Rule Changes

By Emmanouil Platanakis (University of Bath) & Charles Sutcliffe (University of Reading) Although tax relief on pensions is a controversial area of government expenditure, this is the first study of the tax effects of a real world defined benefit pension scheme - the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). First, we estimate the tax and national insurance contribution (NIC) effects of the rule changes in 2011 on the gross and net wealth of the sponsor, government, and 16 age cohorts of members,...

September 24, 2017
Articles, Management, Regulation, Savings, ,
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15Sep

Recasting Social Canada: A Reconsideration of Federal Jurisdiction Over Social Policy

By Sujit Choudhry (Center for Constitutional Transitions) Who speaks for Canada? For the past fifty years, during both the expansion and the retraction of the Canadian welfare state, the politics of social policy has revolved around this single question. In this article, I step back from the politics of social policy to reflect on the constitutional framework within which that politics occurs. My focus is the scope of the federal government’s jurisdiction over social policy. A distinctive feature of Canadian...

September 15, 2017
Articles, Regulation, ,
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