September 2018

28Sep

The Politics of Aging and Retirement: Evidence from Swiss Referenda

By Piera Bello (University of Lugano) Vincenzo Galasso (University of Lugano; Centre for Economic Policy Research) Aging creates financial troubles for PAYG pension systems, since the share of retirees to workers increases. An often advocated policy response is to increase retirement age. Ironically, however, the political support for this policy may actually be hindered by population aging. Using Swiss administrative voting data at municipal level (and individual survey data) from pension reforms referenda, we show in fact that individuals close...

September 28, 2018
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12Sep

Switzerland. Supplementary benefits – what are they and who receives them?

Reducing financial support for the country’s poorest citizens is triggering heated debates in parliament, with no final decision expected this session. State expenditure has more than doubled since 2000 on so-called supplementary benefits for people who can’t get by on their pension alone. What’s at stake? The almost CHF5 billion ($5.1 billion) in supplementary benefitsexternal link that the state pays to more than 320,000 pensioners a year. What’s the purpose of supplementary benefits? According to the federal constitution, the old-age and disability pension...

September 12, 2018
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04Sep

Swiss youth worry more about pensions than immigration: survey

A total of 53 percent of Swiss youth surveyed claimed they are worried about their pensions, compared with 41 percent last year, the barometer has found. Immigration, which preoccupied almost half those surveyed last year, only registered as a concern among 29 percent surveyed this year. Swiss youngsters are more optimistic when it comes to the job market. Only 34 percent felt their job would disappear due to the threat posed by digitization compared with almost three out of four young people...

September 4, 2018
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August 2018

15Aug

Switzerland. Zurich scientists urge state pension fund to divest from fossil fuels

Professors and researchers from Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) have joined the chorus of civil society actorsexternal link calling for the Swiss state pension fund to divest from fossil fuels. In a letterexternal link to Publica, one of the largest pension funds in Switzerland, 166 experts from ETH Zurich, including 128 professors, demanded it stop investing in climate-damaging companies within five years. Publica currently invests around 2% or CHF800 million ($807 million) of the CHF40 billion on its balance...

August 15, 2018
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December 2017

13Dec

Poverty risk high for Swiss pensioners despite high spending

A recent OECD study, which looks at retirement, shows the relatively large amount spent on pensioners in Switzerland. Switzerland consumes 11% of its GDP on retirees, compared to 9% across OECD nations. Despite this high spending, the risk of poverty is higher in Switzerland than across the OECD. According to the organisation, 19% of those over 64 in Switzerland are at risk of poverty, compared to an OECD average of 13%. Read more @Le News

December 13, 2017
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05Dec

New Zealand is robbing us of our Swiss pensions

Swiss expats living in New Zealand want to use Automatic Exchange of Information (AIE) to get a fair distribution of pensions in their adopted country, and they’ve persuaded one chamber of Swiss parliament to take up their cause. For many people who have spent their lives grinding away at a job in Switzerland, the idea of retiring at 65 and heading for an island where the cost of living is low and a Swiss pension goes far is highly appealing. But in...

December 5, 2017
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04Dec

Generational Transfers within the Occupational Pension System in Switzerland

By Severine Arnold (-Gaille) (University of Lausanne - Faculty of Business and Economics) & Anca Jijiie (Faculty of Business and Economics) Solidarity, a key element of any social security system, can be defined as the total intended redistributions that take place between the existent groups within the system, with the purpose of helping each other. However, unintended redistributions also exist, affecting the fairness of the system and leading to animosities between these groups, in particular between active members and pensioners....

December 4, 2017
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September 2017

25Sep

Swiss voters reject raising women’s retirement age

Swiss voters rejected raising women’s retirement age to 65 in a referendum on Sunday on shoring up the wealthy nation’s pension system as a wave of Baby Boomers stops working. Authorities pushing the first serious reform of the pension system in two decades had warned that old-age benefits were increasingly at risk as life expectancy rises and interest rates remain exceptionally low, cutting investment yields. But it fell by a margin of 53-47 percent, sending the government back to the...

September 25, 2017
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15Sep

Why UBS Is Bringing Its Climate-Proofing Strategy to Proxy Voting

UBS Group AG increased its backing of shareholder climate resolutions this year, according to Christopher Greenwald, head of sustainable investing research at UBS Asset Management. UBS, which has more than $1 trillion of its $3.7 trillion in assets under management in sustainable and responsible strategies, made the firm-wide change after a collaboration with a client. The Swiss firm joins other asset managers, including State Street, Blackrock and Vanguard, that are stepping up their focus on climate change in discussions with...

September 15, 2017
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14Sep

Polls show Swiss pension reform hangs in the balance

According to a survey by 20 Minutes publisher Tamedia, the reform will be narrowly rejected, with only 48 percent in favour of the plan and 49 percent against it. Three percent said they had not decided. However a second survey by research institute gfs.bern showed the reverse, with 51 percent in favour of the reforms, a slight decrease from the 53 percent who expressed support for the plan during the institute’s first survey in August. The vote takes place on...

September 14, 2017
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