Many Roads to Paris: A Comparative Review of Pension Policies in Two OECD Countries
by Jacob Assa
Published in the journal Modern Economy, Vol.2 No.5, November 2011
Common (neoliberal) wisdom warns against the detrimental effects of demographic changes and fiscal pressures on... more Common (neoliberal) wisdom warns against the detrimental effects of demographic changes and fiscal pressures on traditional (both defined-benefit and public) pensions and urges a paradigm shift towards defined- contribution plans and personal retirement accounts. This paper examines these claims, promoted by the OECD and World Bank, among others, by comparing the experiences of two OECD members—Israel and Ireland. While Ireland, one of the founders of the OECD, has pursued typical neoliberal policies of retrenchment, Israel—the newest member of the OECD—has taken a more sinuous path, reversing some retrenchment and eventually making pensions mandatory and almost doubling employer contributions to them. The outcomes of these policies seem to be far more positive in Israel than in Ireland, both in terms of their effects on retirees and workers, as well as their impact via aggregate demand on the overall economy, particularly in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
DownloadThe Super-committee Collapse and America’s health care Future – Impact on Providers, Households and the 2012 Elections, The Forum at Harvard School of Public Health presented in Collaboration with Reuters December 16, 2011
Keywords. Social Contract Human Rights Health Freedom Economy Economics Equilibrium TEKT Triangular Ecokinematics Theory Webcast Romania Retirement Law Education Security Sustainable Development Government Finances Banks Money Inflation Attribution.
Harvard Webcast intervention: Social Contracts? One of the main problems I see is that the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the entire health system, absorbs lots of profits. Healthcare is at the foundation of human rights, and all people should benefit. How do you see the health care system regulated as to respect human rights? The instability found in the social contract has to do with healthcare and retirement being secured for people. If there’s instability, it can lead to “civil unrest at different levels.” I think maybe we have seen a little bit of that with the Occupy Wall Street feelings about how society is ordered. Full transcript at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/forum/files/transcript-20111216.pdf
Harvard Webcast Authors: ROBERT BLENDON, DAVID CUTLER, GAIL WILENSKY, JOHN ROTHER, ROS KRASNY, ROBIN HERMAN.... more Harvard Webcast Authors: ROBERT BLENDON, DAVID CUTLER, GAIL WILENSKY, JOHN ROTHER, ROS KRASNY, ROBIN HERMAN. Intervention Adrian Toader-Williams: Social Contracts? One of the main problems I see is that the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the entire health system, absorbs lots of profits. Healthcare is at the foundation of human rights, and all people should benefit. How do you see the health care system regulated as to respect human rights? The instability found in the social contract has to do with healthcare and retirement being secured for people. If there’s instability, it can lead to “civil unrest at different levels.” I think maybe we have seen a little bit of that with the Occupy Wall Street feelings about how society is ordered. Full transcript at http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/forum/files/transcript-20111216.pdf
Independent living in later life
by Jane Parry
Jane Parry, Sandra Vegeris, Maria Hudson, Helen Barnes and
Rebecca Taylor (2004) 'Independent Living in Later Life', Research Report no. 216, Department for Work & Pensions: HMSO.
This report brings together findings from qualitative research undertaken by the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) during... more
This report brings together findings from qualitative research undertaken by the Policy Studies Institute (PSI) during 2003/04 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). This
explored factors influencing perceptions and experiences of independent living in later life and analysed pensioners’ service needs and accessing behaviour, in turn considering the relationship between independence and service use. These issues are timely given the projected rise in the proportion of the UK’s population which is over State Pension age in the near future. The research was also designed to provide refinement of the DWP’s Customer Segmentation Model for Today’s Pensioners, a tool depicting a sliding scale of support needs, differentiating pensioners into seven subsegments on the basis of key demographic criteria.
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Haddara, M., & Elragal, A. (2011). ERP lifecycle: When to retire your ERP system? In M. M. Cruz-Cunha, J. Varajao, P. Powell & R. Martinho (Eds.), Enterprise Information Systems (Vol. 219, pp. 168-177): Springer.
A lot of research has been undertaken focusing on ERP systems lifecycles, but very little paid attention to... more A lot of research has been undertaken focusing on ERP systems lifecycles, but very little paid attention to retirement. ERP retirement means the replacement of an ERP with another. The aim of this research paper is to investigate why and when should organizations retire their ERP systems. A convenience case study of an SME has been selected from Egypt. The case study under investigation has retired their Local ERP system and replaced it with SAP ERP. Results of our analysis indicated that reasons of retirement were: wrong selection, users were not involved in the selection process, and lack of official implementation methodology. This is considered a new finding since main stream literature was mainly focused on retirement after maturity.
Myopia, pension payments and retirement: an experimental approach
by Craig Holmes
The behavioral economics literature on time discounting has suggested that
individuals may systematically... more
The behavioral economics literature on time discounting has suggested that
individuals may systematically undersave when planning for retirement. Hence,
pension systems have developed to enable, or indeed force, individuals to save
more for retirement. Of course, the saving aspect and the timing of retirement
are connected, in the sense that the expected length of retirement determines what
is meant by adequate post-retirement resources, and vice versa. Despite this, the
timing aspect rarely enters into policy discussions, although the same behavioural
phenomena that lead to undersaving – in this paper, myopia and present bias – may
also have implications for the retirement decision. Moreover, the form of pension
payments may also affect the timing decision when individuals do not have time
consistent preferences.
This paper presents a model of saving and retirement timing where saving rates
are mandated, and pension payment may come in either a lump-sum or an annuity.
It tests the model using data collected through a new experiment. The experiment
presented has a particular novel feature which made it uniquely suited for testing
the theoretical model. Specifically, participants in the experiment came back to the
laboratory on a weekly basis over a two month period. This decision to return to
the laboratory (or, to leave the experiment and collect a pension) became in itself
the main variable of interest. The experiment therefore exploited the effort it takes
for participants to come to the laboratory to capture preferences over time-use and
leisure.
The results shown that plans over leaving the experiment tend not to reflect
preferences, whilst actual leaving times were lower for more impulsive individuals
and those who gave up more time to participate. This suggests a tradeoff between
increasing saving through pension systems and earlier retirement. Payment group
had no effect on retirement timing, most likely because the small rewards meant
participants were indifferent between the two forms of payment. The results suggest
individuals may have time-inconsistent preferences over leisure choices, leading
to the incidences of unplanned early retirement.
Quasi-hyperbolic discounting and retirement: a comment
by Craig Holmes
published in Journal of Public Economics, 2010
Diamond and Koszegi (2003) have argued that quasi-hyperbolic discounting can cause dynamic inconsistency in planning... more Diamond and Koszegi (2003) have argued that quasi-hyperbolic discounting can cause dynamic inconsistency in planning when to retire as well as in consumption plans. This comment shows that in a simple model with such preferences, retirement plans are never time-inconsistent, as these same preferences keep savings too low for individuals to ever be able to afford unplanned early retirement. Although only a simple example is presented here to demonstrate the point, this insight suggests the application of Diamond and Koszegi's framework should be reconsidered. The model presented needs to be extended to find robust general conclusions.