September 2023
05Sep

Australian regulator warns pension funds

Australian pension funds need to improve how they value private equity, the sector’s regulator said on Monday after a review into the sector’s treatment of Canva, an Australian technology start-up whose lofty valuation tumbled in 2022. Sydney-headquartered software firm Canva hit a peak valuation of $40bn in late 2021, only to be revised sharply lower to $25.5bn last August amid a downturn in technology stocks. Major funds including Aware Super and Hostplus were investors. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) on...

September 5, 2023
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01Sep

Family Planning Confronts Delayed Retirement in China: The Retirement Intention of Only-Child Parents

By Xiao Yu, Yingdong Xu, Yue Sun & Luyao Jiao By establishing a labor-retirement model within China’s unique intergenerational support culture and one-child policy, this study provides evidence of the one-child policy’s early effect on individuals’ retirement decisions. This finding highlights a contradiction between the retirement intentions of the 1960s and 1970s generations, who are most affected by the one-child policy, and the delayed retirement policy of Chinese government. Utilizing data from the CHARLS 2011-2018 and employing OLS, IV, and...

September 1, 2023
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01Sep

Exploring the Impact of Information Environment on ESG Disclosure Behavior: Evidence from National Pensions and Foreign Investors

By Jong Won Choi, Suk Hyun & Ju Hyoung Park  This study examines the impact of institutional investors on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures of Korean companies listed on Bloomberg from 2011 to 2020. We find that while institutional investors encourage general ESG disclosure, they do not influence materiality-based ESG disclosure. Interestingly, materiality-based ESG disclosures decrease when institutional investors are major shareholders, suggesting a potential decline in disclosure quality. The study also finds a positive relationship between materiality-based...

September 1, 2023
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01Sep

US. DOL auditing some multiemployer plans following PBGC aid, attorney says

The Department of Labor has sent investigative letters to several multiemployer pension plans that have received special financial assistance from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. and had previously suspended benefits under a 2014 law, according to an attorney who works with such plans. Investigators with the Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration are seeking information on plan policies and procedures related to special financial assistance as well as the makeup payments to participants and beneficiaries who experienced suspension of their...

September 1, 2023
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August 2023
28Aug

US. IRS Postpones Rule That Hit Older, High Paid 401(K) Savers-And Their Employers

The IRS is again pushing off a start date for new legislation by introducing a transition period. Earlier, the IRS declared a one-year delay in the new reporting requirement for Forms 1099-K. The IRS has now announced an administrative transition period for the new catch-up contribution requirements under the SECURE 2.0 Act. The new rule requires older, higher paid 401(k) participants to make their catch-up contributions into after-tax Roth accounts, instead of pre-tax traditional accounts. Congress meant for it to take...

August 28, 2023
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23Aug

How French pensions will change on September 1st

To say Macron's pension reforms were controversial is a bit of an understatement - back in 2019 the reforms led to the longest continuous transport strikes ever seen in France. The legislation was paused during the pandemic, but when it was re-introduced in 2023 there followed months of strikes and the biggest street protests in France since 1968. More than 2 million people took to the streets and there were violent clashes in French cities including Paris, Rennes and Nantes. Eventually,...

August 23, 2023
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21Aug

UK. Triple lock helps the poorest pensioners

Discussion of the triple lock for state pensions has to take account of the fact that, according to the House of Commons library, “a comparison of state pension alone shows the UK providing a lower level of pension than most other advanced economies relative to average earnings”. The deficit is somewhat ameliorated for those with private pension income. This results in about 2.1 million pensioners living in poverty. Whatever its political intentions, the economic effect of the triple lock was...

August 21, 2023
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18Aug

US. Industry awaits SEC vote on private fund advisers rule

The SEC is scheduled to vote on a controversial rule Aug. 23 that would require enhanced disclosure from private fund advisers and prohibit certain fee arrangements — and industry players are watching closely. In its agenda for the Aug. 23 meeting, the regulatory agency said it plans to consider adopting the rule it proposed back in February 2022. Specifically, the rule proposal would require private fund managers to provide quarterly statements to its investors, revealing more information on fees, expenses and performance. It would...

August 18, 2023
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July 2023
21Jul

How the 1963 Equal Pay Act and 1964 Civil Rights Act Shaped the Gender Gap in Pay

By Martha J. Bailey, Thomas E. Helgerman & Bryan A. Stuart In the 1960s, two landmark statutes—the Equal Pay and Civil Rights Acts—targeted the long-standing practice of employment discrimination against U.S. women. For the next 15 years, the gender gap in median earnings among full-time, full-year workers changed little, leading many scholars and advocates to conclude the legislation was ineffectual. This paper uses two different research designs to show that women’s relative wages grew rapidly in the aftermath of this...

July 21, 2023
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19Jul

Hungary wants to curb pension rights of transgender women

From a hefty fine on a bookshop for selling a novel on which a hit Netflix series is based, to curbing the pension rights of transgender women, Hungary is toughening measures against the LGBTQ community, long a target of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Meanwhile, a new government amendment is seeking to exclude transgender women from pension rules that allow women to retire earlier than men. "It is inconceivable that those who suddenly identify as women after 39 years of working as...

July 19, 2023
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