June 2019

14Jun

Social Security Coverage for State and Local Government Workers: A Reconsideration

By William G. Gale, David John, Sarah E. Holmes Since it was created in 1935, Social Security has grown from covering about half of the work force to covering nearly all workers. The largest remaining exempted group is a subset of state and local government workers (SLGWs). As of 2008, Social Security did not cover about 27 percent of the 23.8 million SLGWs (Congressional Research Service 2011). Non-coverage of SLGWs is concentrated in certain states scattered around the country...

June 14, 2019
Articles, Labor Market, System Sustainability, ,
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May 2019

24May

Retirement and Social Security

By Giam Cipriani, Tamara Fioroni In this paper, we analyse the effects of demographic change on a PAYG pension system, financed with a defined contribution scheme. In particular we examine the relationship between retirement, fertility and pensions in a three-period overlapping generations model. We focus on both the case of mandatory retirement and the case where the retirement age is freely chosen. In the case of mandatory retirement, increasing longevity has an unambiguously negative impact on fertility and pension...

May 24, 2019
Aging, Articles, Pension design, Savings, , ,
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17May

Selfies for Portugal- An innovative Pan European Retirement Solution

By Robert C. Merton, Arun Muralidhar, Rui Seybert P Ferreira With a rapidly aging population, Portugal faces some serious pension challenges including a Social Security system which is under pressure, and pension benefits gradually approaching levels that will require individuals to supplement Social Security with private savings. In addition, Portugal has a low rate of financial literacy and hence transferring the responsibility of retirement planning to the general population runs a major risk of many individuals retiring poor. While some...

May 17, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Pension Management, , , , , ,
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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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22Apr

Blockchain in Healthcare: Innovations That Empower Patients, Connect Professionals and Improve Care

By Vikram Dhillon, John Bass, Max Hooper, David Metcalf, Alex Cahana Blockchain technology is poised to revolutionize more than just payment and crypto-currency. Many vertical industries will be reshaped by the new trusted data models enabled and inspired by the blockchain - healthcare is no exception. In fact, healthcare may hold the greatest opportunities for meaningful use of the technology. Early pioneers have explored some of the first use cases for medical payments, electronic health records, HIPAA/data privacy, drug counterfeiting,...

April 22, 2019
Books, Books, Sustainability, , ,
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22Apr

Fair Pensions

By Ilja Boelaars (University of Chicago) & Dirk Broeders (De Nederlandsche Bank; Maastricht University) This paper examines the allocation of market risk in a general class of collective pension arrangements: Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) schemes. In a CDC scheme participants collectively share funding risk through benefit level adjustments. There is a concern that, if not well designed, CDC schemes are unfair and will lead to an unintended redistribution of wealth between participants and, in particular, between generations. We define a...

April 22, 2019
Articles, Pension design, Slider-Left, , ,
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22Apr

An Economic Analysis of Intra-governmental Account Transfers: Social Security and Public Infrastructure in Japan

By Yoshimi Adachi (Konan University - Department of Economics) & Tomoki Kitamura (Tohoku Gakuin University; NLI Research Institute, Finance Research Group) In the context of limited local government resources, it is often targeted to secure financial resources for social security expenditures for the aging society and upkeep expenditures against the aging of public infrastructure facilities. This paper examines whether transfers from general accounts to special accounts and public enterprise accounts have a significant impact on the financial burden of local...

April 22, 2019
Aging, Articles, 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

27Mar

The phony retirement crisis

By Andrew Biggs Contrary to the alarms, household savings are growing. But government plans are underfunded. Lawmakers are taking action to deal with the “retirement crisis.” More than 200 House Democrats are sponsoring a bill to expand Social Security benefits, funded by a dramatic increase in taxes. California, Connecticut, Illinois and Oregon have established state-run retirement plans for private sector-workers, which many progressives hope will supplant 401(k)s. But there is no retirement crisis among either today’s retirees or tomorrow’s. Eight in 10...

March 27, 2019
Articles, Management, OP Ed, Savings, Slider-Left, System Sustainability, , ,
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10Mar

Reforming Social Security: The Challenge of Income Inequality

By David W. Rasmussen (Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy) Objective: This article examines the role Social Security plays in alleviating poverty among retirees in the context of threats to its solvency.  Method: Examining long-term employment trends, declining access to defined benefit pensions and saving behavior can determine if in the more future Social Security beneficiaries are likely to be poor.  Results: Labor market trends driven by technical change, global competition and increasing demand for services indicate that more future retirees...

March 10, 2019
Articles, Labor Market, Regulation, , ,
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