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Pensions
Kinds of Pensions Terms modified by Pensions Selected AbstractsPENSION REFORM, POLITICAL PRESSURE AND PUBLIC CHOICE , THE CASE OF FRANCEECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2008Laura Thompson An ageing population and generous public sector pensions have put significant pressure on the funding of the French pension system making a reduction in the scope of state pension schemes imperative. Yet, as public-choice theory would predict, lobbying by interest groups has made reform difficult to achieve. [source] GROWTH AND WELFARE EFFECTS OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL TAX-BASED PUBLIC PENSION REFORM,THE JAPANESE ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 3 2007TETSUO ONO This paper presents an overlapping generations model in which: (i) firms create emissions as by-products of production; and (ii) tax revenue from the working young is transferred to the retired elderly as pay-as-you-go pension benefits. The paper focuses on a replacement ratio, which measures the proportion of after tax work earnings replaced by the public pension, and considers a replacement ratio neutral reform in which the newly introduced environmental tax is devoted to cutting the social security tax, keeping the replacement ratio unchanged. It is shown that the reform may improve growth, environmental quality and the nonenvironmental utility of every generation. [source] Public Pension Reform in the United Kingdom: What Effect on the Financial Well-Being of Current and Future Pensioners?,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2005Richard Disney Abstract Unlike many tax and benefit changes, reforms to public pension programmes take many years to have their full effect. This paper examines the effect of reforms to the public pension programme in the United Kingdom on the state retirement incomes of current generations of pensioners and on the prospective state incomes of future generations of pensioners. We show that, for an individual with lifetime earnings close to male average earnings, the UK pension system is at its most generous to those reaching the state pension age around the year 2000, but that the introduction of the state second pension and the pension credit postpones this peak for individuals on lower incomes and for those with substantial periods out of paid employment spent with caring responsibilities. We also consider how the ,mix' of benefits, particularly between the contributory and income-tested sectors, could change over time, and the impact that this would have on incentives to save for retirement. [source] Pension Reform, Capital Markets and the Rate of ReturnGERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 2 2003Axel Börsch-Supan Aging; pension reform; rates of return Abstract. This paper discusses the consequences of population aging and a fundamental pension reform , that is, a shift towards more pre-funding , for capital markets in Germany. We use a stylized closed-economy, overlapping-generations model to compare the effects of the recent German pension reform with those of a more decisive reform that would freeze the current pay-as-you-go contribution rate and thus result in a larger funded component of the pension system. We predict rates of return to capital under both reform scenarios over a long horizon, taking demographic projections as given. Our main finding is that the future decrease in the rate of return is much smaller than often claimed in the public debate. Our simulations show that the capital stock will decrease once the baby-boom generations enter retirement, even if there were no fundamental pension reform. The corresponding decrease in the rate of return, the direct effect of population aging, is around 0.7 percentage points. While the capital market effects of the recent German pension reform are marginal, the rate of return to capital would decrease by an additional 0.5 percentage points under the more decisive reform proposal. [source] Social security for China's rural aged: a proposal based on a universal non-contributory pensionINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 2 2010Yinan Yang Yang Y, Williamson JB, Shen C. Social security for China's rural aged: a proposal based on a universal non-contributory pension Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 236,245 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. China's relative lack of social security coverage for rural elders exacerbates the already severe rural,urban economic disparity, slows the rate of rural poverty reduction, and raises social justice concerns. Our analysis draws on evidence from a number of sources including interviews with experts on China, Chinese government documents, Chinese newspaper accounts, and other sources from other countries. Based on our analysis of what has been tried in other countries and the current situation in rural China, we offer some suggestions for Chinese policy makers. We suggest that, for rural China, a universal non-contributory old-age pension deserves serious consideration, and refer to our proposed model as a Rural Old-Age Social Pension. It will reduce the level of poverty in rural areas and the degree of income inequality between rural and urban areas while simultaneously promoting social and political stability. [source] Pension reform in central and eastern Europe: Emerging issues and patternsINTERNATIONAL LABOUR REVIEW, Issue 1 2001Elaine FULTZ First page of article [source] Pension reform in ChinaINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 3 2008Felix Salditt Abstract This article analyses China's progress in creating a national old-age insurance system, providing a detailed description of the system and an assessment of the degree to which it has so far realised its primary goal of social security for more people. Since 1997, there have been many reforms, but despite progress, the scope of the system is limited, with the coverage rate among urban employees being below 50 per cent. The rural population largely remains outside the system, and it seems likely that the majority of the population will be dependent on family support for many years to come. There is a "demographic window" until around 2015 to address these shortcomings. Extending coverage through improved compliance by employees and companies as well as the continuing financial commitment towards the National Social Security Fund are crucial to create the financial and institutional basis that can cushion the effects of a much older population in the years ahead. [source] The recalibration of the Danish old-age pension systemINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 2 2003Niels Ploug Pension reform in Denmark in the 1990s is of general interest owing to the development of a system of funded, defined contribution pension schemes based on collective agreement between the parties in the labour market. The resulting pension system seems to hold some answers to the critique of funded pension schemes. This paper analyses the process which led to the 1991 pension reform and relates the discussions and solutions found in Denmark to the international debate on pension reform. [source] The World Bank Approach to Pension ReformINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2000Robert Holzmann This paper highlights the World Bank's thinking and worldwide involvement in pension reform. Both are driven by the Bank's mandate to help countries develop economically and to reduce poverty. The Bank has four key concerns in working with clients on pension policy: (1) short-term financing and long-term financial viability; (2) effects on economic growth; (3) adequacy and other distributive issues; and (4) political risk and sustainability. In response to these concerns and after review of the three main reform options for unfunded systems - mere PAYG reform, a rapid and complete shift to a mandatory funded system, and a gradual shift to a multipillar scheme - the Bank clearly favours the multipillar approach but in a pragmatic and country-specific manner. When helping to implement a pension reform the Bank fully takes account of country preferences and circumstances, bases its support on sound reform criteria, links the client assistance with knowledge management, provides training and other measures to enhance the reform capacity of a country, and seeks cooperation with other international institutions. In addition, the Bank has a comprehensive research agenda to improve the working of multipillar schemes, and the investigations include issues of coverage, administrative costs and annuities. [source] Disability Support Pension Recipients: Who Gets Off (and Stays Off) Payments?THE AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2007Lixin Cai We use Centrelink payment records on Disability Support Pension (DSP) recipients over the period 1995 to 2002 to investigate individual transitions off payments. Our findings are consistent with the existence of a close correspondence between disability benefit receipt and labour market outcomes: entry to DSP via unemployment benefits is associated with substantially reduced prospects of exiting DSP, while employment during the DSP spell is associated with not only an increased probability of exiting DSP, but also more success in staying off payments once an exit has been made. A further finding of our analysis is that persons who exit DSP due to take-up of employment have a relatively high rate of return to payments compared with persons who exit for other reasons, and indeed exhibit a high propensity to cycle off and on payments. [source] The Pensions Green Paper: A Generational Accounting PerspectiveTHE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 467 2000Phil Agulnik In this note we show how the policy proposals contained in the government's Green Paper on pensions (DSS, 1998) affect the long term sustainability of the UK's public finances and redistribution between current and future generations. Using the methodology of generational accounting we show that the proposals in the Green Paper will marginally increase the tax rise needed to ensure intertemporal solvency, and slightly worsen generational imbalances. The effect of implied changes in National Insurance Contributions, and the fiscal and generational implications of fully funding the proposed State Second Pension, are also discussed. [source] How to Make the Japanese Public Pension System Reliable and WorkableASIAN ECONOMIC POLICY REVIEW, Issue 1 2009Noriyuki TAKAYAMA G23; G38; H55 This paper has two objectives. The first is to identify current problems in Japan's pension administration. The chief problem is a weak governance structure. In particular, the current governance structure ignores the role of pension participants. A rigorous division and clear assignment of responsibilities to each of the pension participants, the Social Insurance Agency, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is urgently needed. Given rapid demographic change, the second objective is to consider the case for full tax financing of the National Basic Pension. It is estimated that the net burden would vary across different cohorts, but we demonstrate that the net burden can be smoothed across different cohorts. This result is quite different from that in the 2008 Interim Report of the Japanese National Council on Social Security. [source] Developmentalism in Korea: A Useful Tool for Explaining the Role of Social Security in the Reduction of Poverty and InequalityASIAN SOCIAL WORK AND POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2008Sang Kyun Kim It is conventional wisdom that universalism is more effective than selectivism in addressing the problems of poverty and inequality. In providing income security for the elderly, retirement pensions calculated on the principle of social insurance represent universalism and social assistance benefits on the basis of means-test selectivism. Korea has both a contributory pension scheme and social assistance program for the elderly. The social assistance began in 1961. The contributory scheme, the National Pension, started belatedly in 1988 and its coverage expanded to the entire population in 1999. We can, therefore, expect that the social security system, especially the universal pension scheme based on social insurance, has some positive impacts on the reduction of poverty and inequality. This paper, however, raises doubt as to the conventional wisdom and thus reviews the developmental process of the Korean social security system for the aged. It was found that the dominant ideological controversy revolved, not around universalism versus selectivism, but around the option between developmentalism and other strategies. Our empirical analysis showed that the public pension had little impact on the reduction of poverty and inequality, particularly in comparison with advanced welfare states. This is not surprising at all, since poverty eradication and redistribution were not major objectives of the Korean social security system. The controversy between universalism and selectivism was relatively unfamiliar in the policy process of the Korean social security system. Even though the redistributive effect is getting larger as the National Pension system becomes mature, the developmentalist model has been proved to be a more useful tool for explaining the limited role of Korean social security. [source] AN ANALYSIS OF DURATION ON THE DISABILITY SUPPORT PENSION PROGRAM,AUSTRALIAN ECONOMIC PAPERS, Issue 2 2006LIXIN CAI The paper examines the factors that determine the duration on the Disability Support Pension (DSP) program using administrative data. We estimate two models based on two competing assumptions: the first model takes the standard assumption in duration models that all recipients will eventually leave the program. The second one takes into account the possibility that there may be some recipients who will never recover from their disabilities and hence not leave the program. Both models indicate that female recipients, recipients who enter DSP at a very young or very old age, recipients with a partner on income support, and recipients who transfer from unemployment benefits have the potential of a longer DSP duration. [source] Simple Transfers, Complex Outcomes: The Impacts of Pensions on Poor Households in BrazilDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 5 2006Peter Lloyd-Sherlock ABSTRACT Drawing on quantitative survey data and in-depth interviews, this article seeks to map out the potential direct and indirect effects of simple cash transfers on households in impoverished rural and urban settings. Brazil is shown to have an extensive system of old age pensions, which affords almost universal coverage to households containing older people. These benefits have a significant impact on levels of poverty and vulnerability in recipient households. They also facilitate access to essential healthcare items, such as drugs, which are seldom freely available through the state health system. The in-depth interviews reveal that pensions can have important effects on intra-household relations, but these effects were not generalizable nor easily captured by quantitative survey tools. There was clear evidence that pensions reduced the propensity of older people to remain economically active, but this must be understood in a context of limited employment opportunities for all age groups and a high prevalence of disability. Overall, the article demonstrates the complex effects of a relatively simple cash transfer, which policy makers need to take into account. [source] Public Pensions and Immigration: A Public Policy Approach.ECONOMICA, Issue 295 2007By TIM KRIEGER No abstract is available for this article. [source] Understanding Pensions: Cognitive Function, Numerical Ability and Retirement Saving,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2007James Banks In a world of declining state pension provision, it is becoming increasingly important that individuals are able to understand the financial choices they face and can choose savings products, portfolios and contribution rates accordingly. In this paper, we look at numerical ability and other dimensions of cognitive function in a sample of older adults in England and examine the extent to which these abilities are correlated with various measures of wealth and retirement saving outcomes. As well as finding that relatively large fractions of the older population can be seen to have low levels of numeracy, we show that numeracy levels are strongly correlated with measures of retirement saving and investment portfolios, even when controlling for other dimensions of cognitive ability as well as educational attainment. Numeracy is also related to knowledge and understanding of pension arrangements, and with perceived financial security. In the short run, there may be a role for targeting simple retirement planning information at low-numeracy, low-education groups; a longer-run goal for retirement saving policy might be to improve numeracy levels more generally. [source] Distributional Implications of Tax Relief on Voluntary Private Pensions in Spain,FISCAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2007José-Ignacio Antón Using taxation statistics, this paper explores the distributional implications of tax relief on private pensions in Spain in 2002. For this purpose, the author suggests a decomposition of the Kakwani index and its generalisations that allows us to distinguish between the regressivity caused by targeting and that due to benefits allocation among recipients. This paper finds that these tax incentives are regressive - mainly for the latter reason - and have negative although small distributional effects. Finally, this work presents several proposals for reform of the current system and simulates their implications for equity. [source] A Note on the Tax Treatment of Private Pensions and Individual Savings AccountsFISCAL STUDIES, Issue 1 2000CARL EMMERSON The UK government is planning to introduce stakeholder pensions from April 2001 as an alternative to existing personal pensions for people on moderate earnings. But stakeholder pensions are only one way to save for retirement; the new tax-free Individual Savings Account (ISA) is another. This note compares the tax treatments of pensions and ISAs and assesses the conditions under which the tax treatment of private pensions is more generous than that of an ISA to a basicrate taxpayer , the typical target for stakeholder pensions. The abolition of dividend tax credits paid to pension funds in July 1997 reduced the relatively tax-favoured position of pensions, but the tax-free lump sum means that private pensions continue to be a tax-favoured form of saving at most reasonable rates of return. We show that employer contributions to private pensions are particularly tax-favoured. [source] The removal of workplace partnership in the UK Civil Service: a trade union perspectiveINDUSTRIAL RELATIONS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010Douglas Martin ABSTRACT Despite extensive research on the impact of social partnership in the workplace, limited investigation has been undertaken around its removal. This article examines, from a trade union perspective, the removal of the partnership agreement by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Public and Commercial Services Union. [source] Investing Public Pensions in the Stock Market: Implications for Risk Sharing, Capital Formation and Public Policy in the Developed and Developing WorldINTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF FINANCE, Issue 3 2001Deborah Lucas Concerns that existing public pension systems will be unable to pay benefits to a rapidly ageing population without sharp tax increases, and the prospect of higher average returns on stocks than on government securities, are drawing the attention of policy,makers worldwide to the option of investing public pension assets in stocks. Including stock market investments in public pension plans could improve risk sharing within and between generations, and could perhaps lead to faster market development in some countries. It could also result in excessive risk,taking, higher transactions costs and a false sense of increased financial security. This paper assesses these issues, with an emphasis on the considerations that are of special importance to developing markets. A contrast is drawn between the demographic outlook in East Asia and the major industrialized countries. Some lessons are drawn from the reform experience in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America. [source] The World Bank's New Social Policies: PensionsINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 170 2001François-Xavier Merrien Over the last 15 years, the world has become the scene of struggles between major inter-national stakeholders regarding the policies required for economic prosperity and social development. The World Bank plays a dominant role here. In this article, the author highlights the epistemic revolution the policy field has undergone under the aegis of the Bank. He analyses the basic aspects of the new orthodoxy regarding pensions and the effects on the policies of the governments concerned. He concludes with an examination of the theoretical and practical relevance of the recommendations and asks to what extent the Bank is able to learn from its own mistakes. [source] The development and Reform of Social Security Pensions:The Approach of the International Labour OfficeINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2000Colin Gillion The reform and the development of pension schemes are affected by the values society places on the provision of income security in old age and the resources it is prepared to allocate for the purpose. This paper examines those values and the issues arising from them. The objective is to propose reforms which will simultaneously provide full coverage with good governance, prevent poverty in old age, and result in indexed, guaranteed and reliable pensions for those onaverage incomes, all with minimum economic distortion or adverse economic effects. The question of the most appropriate design has to be weighed against these other factors, which will determine not only what is feasible and what is not, but also where the most desirable balance lies. The optimum structure would seem to involve a mix of defined benefit and defined contribution schemes. [source] Voting on Pensions: A SurveyJOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 2 2005Grégory De Walque Abstract., The paper presents a nonexhaustive survey of the literature designed to explain emergence, size and political sustainability of pay-as-you-go pension systems. It proposes a simple framework of analysis (a small, open, two overlapping generation economy model), around which some variants are displayed. Dictatorship of the median voter is assumed. The text is organized to answer the following questions: (i) Do political equilibria with PAYG pension schemes exist? (ii) Why do they emerge? (iii) What are the conditions for the participation constraint of the pension game to be verified?, and finally, (iv) What is the size of the pension system chosen by the median voter and how is this size influenced by an exogenous (e.g. demographic) shock? [source] Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income, edited by Gordon L. Clark, Alicia H. Munnell, and J. Michael OrszagJOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, Issue 2 2008Article first published online: 5 MAY 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] Pensions, Risks, and Capital MarketsJOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, Issue 4 2006Adair Turner First page of article [source] Guaranteeing Defined Contribution Pensions: The Option to Buy Back a Defined Benefit PromiseJOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, Issue 1 2003Marie-Eve Lachance After a long commitment to defined benefit (DB) pension plans for U.S. public sector employees, many state legislatures have introduced defined contribution (DC) plans for their public employees. In this process, investment risk that was previously borne by state DB plans has now devolved to employees covered by the new DC plans. In light of this trend, some states have introduced a guarantee mechanism to help protect DC plan participants. One such guarantee takes the form of an option permitting DC plan participants to buy back their DB benefit for a price. This article develops a theoretical framework to analyze the option design and illustrate how employee characteristics influence the option's cost. We illustrate the potential impact of a buy-back option in a pension reform enacted recently by the State of Florida for its public employees. If employees were to exercise the buy-back option optimally, the market value of this option could represent up to 100 percent of the DC contributions over their work life. [source] Differential Mortality and the Design of the Italian System of Public PensionsLABOUR, Issue 2003Graziella Caselli After reviewing the secular trends in elderly mortality in Italy, and the evolution of regional differences in survival over the last three decades, we evaluate the impact, on the conversion factors introduced by the Dini reform, of a further decline in elderly mortality over the next few decades. We compute the conversion factors using a close approximation to the unknown formula employed in the Dini reform but allowing for gender- and region-specific survival probabilities. Our results leave no doubt about the importance of frequently updating the conversion factors in the light of the rapid increase in elderly survival. The paper also quantifies to what extent gender- and region-specific conversion factors may differ from their currently legislated values, that only vary by age. Finally, we recognize that the actuarial fairness of the system introduced by the recent reform can only be guaranteed on average and that, in the presence of a heterogeneous population of individuals that differ considerably in their mortality prospects, the current system implies a substantial degree of redistribution from high-mortality groups (typically characterized by low income and low wealth) to low-mortality groups (typically characterized by high income and high wealth). [source] Intergenerational Transfers, and Public Pensions in a Non Altuistic Setting: a Public Choice ModelLABOUR, Issue 1 2001Furio Camillo Rosati The paper presents a model based on non-altruistic individuals, where middle aged and old individuals influence the decisions about public social security system. This is an alternative or a complement to private intergenerational transfers. Fertility is endogenous, as children are seen as an assets in the process of transferring resources to old age by the network of intergenerational intrafamily transfers. Expectations about the Government social security budget balance play a crucial role. We also present some empirical estimates of the fertility and pension ,demand' function for some developed countries. It emerges that both can be treated as endogenous, and the results are coherent with the theory. [source] PERCEPTIONS OF BENEFIT FRAUD STAFF IN THE UK: GIVING P.E.A.C.E.PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2007A CHANCE? This article reports a study concerning perceptions of benefit fraud staff and of management concerning their own interviewing techniques and standards, and their views pertaining to a preferred model of interviewing. Interviewing fraud suspects forms an important task performed by Fraud Investigators (FIs) within the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in the UK. Given this significance, it is surprising that there has been little analysis of the skills used to do this task. Current training consists of a course centred on an interviewing framework called the PEACE model, which was originally developed for police use. The research outlined in this paper examined both FIs and their managers' perceptions and attitudes of the model and of their own practices. It was found that, while there was general support for the model, reservations were voiced over how effective PEACE may actually be in practice. These reservations centred on insufficient time to prepare for investigations along with a perceived inflexibility over the model's framework. In, addition, it was highlighted that the absence of any national supervisory framework for investigative interviews should give the organization cause for concern in ensuring standards. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||