August 2018

08Aug

Russian pension reform sparks protests as Putin’s ratings fall

Pension reform is genocide!” “You deprive us of our pension – we deprive you of your authority!” “We don’t want to die working!” These were only some of the slogans shouted by Russian protesters during mass rallies last weekend, held in response to a new reform that will rise the retirement age in Russia. From Moscow to St Petersburg to Siberia to the country’s Far East, the rallies were a nationwide phenomenon across the world’s biggest country. For Vladimir Putin, the...

August 8, 2018
News, Slider, , , ,
Read more...
03Aug

US. Public Pensions Are a Disaster. Here’s a Fair Solution

Connecticut is at the cutting edge of a crisis unfolding across the U.S.: States and municipalities have promised their employees some $4 trillion in pension benefits that they can’t afford to pay. Now the state needs to help lead the way out, by setting aside partisan politics and moving to a better system. Thanks to decades of mismanagement by politicians from both parties, Connecticut has one of the largest pension funding deficits in the country, amounting to one fifth of...

August 3, 2018
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...

July 2018

31Jul

3 arrested after Russian opposition rally on pension age

MOSCOW (AP) — Three Russian opposition leaders were detained by police minutes after a demonstration to protest a government plan to raise the age for receiving state retirement pensions ended Sunday. The demonstration in central Moscow had been authorized by city authorities and attracted thousands of people. No reason for the arrests was immediately given. Oleg Stepanov, a top aide to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, reported his detention on Twitter. He posted a photo of himself and the two others...

July 31, 2018
News, Slider, , ,
Read more...
25Jul

The Role Of The Chilean CCR In Private Equity

The Chilean pension fund system has breached in 2018 the 200bn threshold. Its pension fund system – Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones – traditionally already very open to investment overseas, has now the potential to increase exponentially the exposure to overseas alternative investments. A recent reform affecting the pension system allows in fact Chilean pension funds now to directly invest as well as co-invest in foreign private equity funds. The Chilean pension regulator - Superintendencia de Pensiones - issued in November 2017 a regulation...

July 25, 2018
Articles, Investing, Regulation, , ,
Read more...
23Jul

Retirement, Pensions and Justice: A Philosophical Analysis

By Mark Hyde &‎ Rory Shand This book addresses the tendency to mischaracterise liberalism as a “neoliberal” reform project, arguing that liberal political philosophy is concerned only to sustain the conditions that make individual freedom possible. This is illustrated with reference to the design of pensions. Considered in terms of liberal justice, retirement systems require redistributive transfers to help the poor, measures to ensure that retirees are rewarded on their merits, and provisions that treat everyone with equal dignity and...

July 23, 2018
Books, Labor Market, ,
Read more...
23Jul

Central States Pension Fund: Department of Labor Activities Under the Consent Decree and Federal Law

By Charles A. Jeszeck (Government Accountability Office (GAO)), David Lehrer (Government Accountability Office (GAO)), Margaret Weber, Laurel E. Beedon, Charles J Ford, Jessica Moscovitch, Layla Moughari, Joseph Silvestri, Anjali Tekchandani, Frank Todisco (Independent), Adam Wendel (Government Accountability Office (GAO)) The Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund (CSPF) was established in 1955 to provide pension benefits to trucking industry workers and is one of the largest multiemployer plans. According to its regulatory filings, CSPF had less than half the...

July 23, 2018
Articles, Labor Market, Regulation, , ,
Read more...

June 2018

16Jun

The Effects of Means-Tested, Noncontributory Pensions on Poverty and Well-Being: Evidence from the Chilean Pension Reforms

By Italo Garcia (RAND Corporation) & Andres Otero (Independent) Chile initiated in 1981 a privately managed, individual-account pension system that inspired similar reforms in many Latin American countries, and that has been considered as a possible model for Social Security in the United States. After 30 years in place, the Chilean pension system has been criticized for replicating existing inequalities in labor markets and increasing the risk of old-age poverty; for achieving lower levels of coverage; and for providing low...

June 16, 2018
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, , , , ,
Read more...
04Jun

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...

June 4, 2018
Articles, Pension design, Regulation, , , ,
Read more...

April 2018

25Apr

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...

April 25, 2018
Articles, Investing, OP Ed, Pension design, PPI’s original Op-Eds, Savings, Slider-Left, ,
Read more...
23Apr

“Rethinking Pension Reform: Ten Myths About Social Security Systems”

By Peter R. Orszag & Joseph E. Stiglitz Averting the Old Age Crisis, the World Bank's path-breaking publication on pensions, trenchantly notes that "myths abound in discussions of old age security."2 This paper examines ten such myths in a deliberately provocative manner. Our hope is not only to spur debate during this "New Ideas About Old Age Security" conference, but more broadly to ensure that policy-makers understand the complexity of pension reform. It is testimony to the power of Averting the Old...

April 23, 2018
Pension design,
Read more...