October 2018

How Persistent Low Returns Will Shape Saving and Retirement

By Olivia S Mitchell,‎ Robert Clark,‎ Raimond Maurer Financial market developments over the past decade have undermined what was once thought to be conventional wisdom about saving, investment, and retirement spending. How Persistent Low Returns Will Shape Saving and Retirement explores how the weak capital market performance predicted for the next several years will shape pension saving, investment, and decumulation plans. Academics, policymakers, and industry leaders debate alternative strategies to cope with these challenges globally, as economic growth remains slow...

The Experts’ War on Poverty: Social Research and the Welfare Agenda in Postwar America (American Institutions and Society)

By Romain D. Huret In the critically acclaimed La Fin de la Pauverté, Romain D. Huret identifies a network of experts who were dedicated to the post-World War II battle against poverty in the United States. John Angell’s translation of Huret’s work brings to light for an English-speaking audience this critical set of intellectuals working in federal government, academic institutions, and think tanks. Their efforts to create a policy bureaucracy to support federal socio-economic action spanned from the last days...

Responsible Investing: An Introduction to Environmental, Social, and Governance Investments

By Matthew W. Sherwood,‎ Julia Pollard This textbook provides the first holistic resource on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing for undergraduate and graduate programs. It provides a thorough background and history of ESG investing, as well as cutting-edge industry developments, in a way that introduces the reader to the rapidly developing field of responsible investing. Read the complete book here

The Creation and Benchmarking of a Green Municipal Bond Index

By Candace Partridge (University College London - QASER Laboratory), Francesca Medda (University College London - QASER Laboratory) As the green bond market grows, many are wondering if there is a pricing difference between green bonds and conventional bonds. In order to explore these ideas, we created bond indices specific to the green-labelled and climate-aligned municipal bond market, primarily to test the competitiveness of the green sector of the muni bond market against the overall muni bond market. We used the...

The Impact of Investment on Climate Change: The Case Study of Cambodia

By Phon Sophat (Thammasat University - Faculty of Economics; National Bank of Cambodia) Climate change has been mentioned as priority issues which government try to handle it with carefulness and suitability with growth and FDIs. The mainstreaming climate change might be converted into sub-national planning scale extremely identified. This include of the Strategic Framework for both centralization and decentralisation under the National Program for Sub National Democratic Development, So the development of a guideline for mainstreaming climate change into sub-national...

September 2018

China’s Pension Reforms: Political Institutions, Skill Formation and Pension Policy in China (China Policy Series)

By Ke Meng Existing literature has looked at many factors which have shaped Chinese pension reforms. As China’s pension reform proceeds in an expanding and localising fashion, this book argues that there is a pressing need to examine it in the context of China’s political institutions and economic transformations. The book takes a unique approach by looking at political institutions of the Chinese state and the changing conditions of the Chinese economy, which rarely receive proper treatment in the current...

China's Pension Reforms: Political Institutions, Skill Formation and Pension Policy in China (China Policy Series)

By Ke Meng Existing literature has looked at many factors which have shaped Chinese pension reforms. As China’s pension reform proceeds in an expanding and localising fashion, this book argues that there is a pressing need to examine it in the context of China’s political institutions and economic transformations. The book takes a unique approach by looking at political institutions of the Chinese state and the changing conditions of the Chinese economy, which rarely receive proper treatment in the current...

August 2018

Defining and Measuring Green Investments

Georg Inderst (Inderst Advisory), Christopher Kaminker (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)) & Fiona Stewart (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)) This definitional, stocktaking paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the concepts and definitions related to "green" investments that are currently used in the market place. The purpose of this research is not to take a position on a specific definition but rather to explore what is being generally used, whether there are commonalties and inconsistencies,...

Behavioral Household Finance

John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian NBER Program(s):Aging, Public Economics This chapter provides an overview of household finance. The first part summarizes key facts regarding household financial behavior, emphasizing empirical regularities that are inconsistent with the standard classical economic model and discussing extensions of the classical model and explanations grounded in behavioral economics that can account for the observed patterns. This part covers five topics: consumption and savings, borrowing, payments, asset allocation, and insurance. The second part...

Nigeria. Why some retirees earn lower pensions

Pensions earned by a retiree under the Contributory Pension Scheme can be affected by the number of years the worker must have made contributions into the Retirement Savings Accounts. The Managing Director, IEI-Anchor Pensions, Mr Glory Etaduovie, said this while making a presentation on the pension industry in Lagos. He said, “There appears to be a dislike by some civil servants for the Contributory Pension Scheme because it is thought that it pays lower than the defined benefits scheme. This leads...