Unfortunately these are behind a firewall, but you can access the abstracts to see what you're missing. JOURNAL OF PENSION ECONOMICS AND FINANCE Volume 9 - Issue 03 - July 2010 PDF version of this Table of Contents Articles Does it pay to be SMarT?* T. SCOTT FINDLEY, FRANK N. CALIENDO Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 9, Issue 03, July 2010, pp 321 - 344 Cost, performance and portfolio composition of small pension funds in Australia WILSON SY Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 9, Issue 03, July 2010, pp 345 - 368 Work histories and the access to contributory pensions: the case of Uruguay MARISA BUCHELI, ALVARO FORTEZA, IANINA ROSSI Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 9, Issue 03, July 2010, pp 369 - 391 The impact of changing demographics and pensions on the demand for housing and financial assets ALEŠ ČERNÝ, DAVID MILES, L'UBOMÍR SCHMIDT Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 9, Issue 03, July 2010, pp 393 - 420 Market design for the provision of social insurance: the case of disability and survivors insurance in Chile GONZALO REYES Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 9, Issue 03, July 2010, pp 421 - 444 Old age support in kind KAZUTOSHI MIYAZAWA Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 9, Issue 03, July 2010, pp 445 - 472 Book Reviews Privatizing Pensions: The Transnational Campaign for Social Security Reform. Mitchell Orenstein. Princeton University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-69113-697-4, 218 pages. Bruce Kogut Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 9, Issue 03, July 2010, pp 473 - 474 Ageing Labour Forces: Promises and Prospects. Philip Taylor, ed. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-84844-020-3, 240 pages. Elizabeth T. Powers Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 9, Issue 03, July 2010, pp 474 - 476 When I'm Sixty-Four: The Plot against Pensions and the Plan to Save Them. Teresa Ghilarducci. Princeton University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-691-11431-6, 374 pages. Jack Towarnicky Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 9, Issue 03, July 2010, pp 476 - 478 The Rise of Mutual Funds: An Insider's View. Matthew Fink. Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-19533-645-0, 320 pages. Donald C. Willeke Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Volume 9, Issue 03, July 2010, pp 478 - 479
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
New articles from the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance
Monday, June 28, 2010
Upcoming event, with date change: Will Automatic Enrollment Reduce Employer Contributions to 401(k) Plans?
On Tuesday, June 29, the Savings and Retirement Forum will be held at the Urban Institute (2100 M Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20037) [Directions to UI], at 8:30am. International Monetary Fund technical assistance adviser Mauricio Soto and Urban Institute senior research associate Barbara A. Butrica will present their paper "Will Automatic Enrollment Reduce Employer Contributions to 401(k) Plans?," which is available here. If you plan on coming please RSVP. Coffee, juice, and pastries will be served. Please feel free to pass this along to others who you feel might be interested in attending. The purpose of the Forum is to bring together academics, interested industry professionals, policy wonks, and government staffers who work on issues related to Social Security, pensions, savings, and general retirement issues for a monthly seminar and an annual half-day conference. More information is available at savingsandretirement.org.Will Automatic Enrollment Reduce Employer Contributions to 401(k) Plans?
Friday, June 25, 2010
NASI’s Social Security Academy for Interns
Demystifying Social Security: Academy for Interns July 22, 2010, 8:30 am — 3:30 pm Location Kaiser Family Foundation Contact Calling All Interns and Students! Do you know what Social Security is or how it works? Have you ever wondered why, whenever there is a discussion about the nation's debt and deficits Social Security becomes a part of the conversation? Would you like to know if/how/or when Social Security might run out of money? (The answer may surprise you.) Can we improve Social Security benefits for the vulnerable individuals who need it most? For answers to these questions and more, the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) offers interns, students, and others an opportunity to discuss and debate the future of social insurance programs such as Social Security at Demystifying Social Security: Academy for Interns. Attendees will gain a better understanding of the challenges facing the President and Congress as they work to modify Social Security. The free, day-long event features prominent guest speakers, expert panels, and interactive activities, plus opportunities for networking. Lunch will be provided and door prizes will be awarded at the end of the day. So join us on July 22, 2010 for a discussion of the present and future of Social Security at Demystifying Social Security. A light breakfast and lunch will be served and door prizes and giveaways will be awarded at the end of the day.
Barbara Jordan Conference Center
1330 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
United States
Should We Raise Taxes on the Middle Class? We Already Are.
My thoughts on House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's call to consider tax increases for the middle class. Over at The American, AEI's online magazine.
Reid vs Angle on Social Security
From AEI's Enterprise Blog: Best I can tell, Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharon Angle wants to shift pretty far toward supporting personal accounts for Social Security, having talked about allowing young and middle-aged workers to "opt out" of the program, of "phasing out" Social Security and so on. I don't have a lot of problems with that, so long as a strong safety net is kept in place for lower-income retirees. Yet, as entitlement spending rises, the need to protect low earners remains; however, paying high Social Security benefits to high earners shouldn't be the program or the government's highest priority. That said, I'm not under any illusions that my views are where the median voter is or that my views couldn't easily be distorted in an election campaign. What's surprising is that, even given views on Social Security, which aren't exactly tailor-made for election in senior-heavy Nevada, Angle's Democratic opponent—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid—is still stretching the truth in his ads attacking Angle on the issue. The Las Vegas Review Journal Likewise, the Review Journal says, "Reid, in the new 30-second spot and in a previous negative ad, has been trying to scare seniors into thinking Angle would cut off their Social Security checks." But, in the interview that Reid's ad cites, Angle said that the program must "fulfill our obligations to our seniors. They paid into the system. They're counting on that." That doesn't exactly sound like she's looking to throw Granny out on the street. Angle needs to be clearer about where she stands on Social Security: how she views the system today, where she wants it to go, and how she would get it there. The last part, in particular, is tricky for supporters of personal accounts. Reid can attack Angle's ideas but he's never had his own fixes to defend. In fact, Reid has done little to fix Social Security other than to initially denounce spending trust fund surpluses on other projects, while for two decades voting to do precisely that. In 1990, Reid asked, Are we as a country violating a trust by spending Social Security trust fund moneys for some purpose other than for which they were intended? The obvious answer is yes. Reid assured us that someone doing this outside of government would be prosecuted. Yet in almost every year since then, the entire trust fund surplus has been swallowed up by deficits elsewhere in the budget—deficits that Reid effectively supported. So while Angle has some policy work to do, Reid has a deficit of honesty he needs to make up.
reports on a new Reid ad claiming that Angle called Social Security "welfare." Yet, as the Review Journal makes clear, in the Angle interview cited by the ad, she makes clear that it was her father who refused to take benefits because he saw them as welfare. Angle herself didn't say it.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
New papers from the Social Science Research Network
SOCIAL SECURITY, PENSIONS & RETIREMENT INCOME eJOURNAL "Aging Asia's Looming Pension Crisis" Asian Development Bank Economics Working Paper Series No. 165 DONGHYUN PARK, Asian Development Bank - Economic Research Due to population aging, weakening of family-based support, and other factors, old-age income support is becoming an issue of growing importance throughout Asia. This is especially true in East Asia and Southeast Asia where the demographic transition is already well under way. This paper provides a broad overview of the current state of the pension systems in People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam; diagnoses the pension systems; and identifies their major structural weaknesses. Key systemic failures were found to be low coverage, inadequate benefits, lack of financial sustainability, and insufficient support for the elderly poor. The paper concludes with some specific policy directions for pension reform to strengthen the capacity of Asian pension systems in delivering economic security for the looming large and growing army of the elderly in the region. "When can Insurers Offer Products that Dominate Delayed Old-Age Pension Benefit Claiming?" Netspar Discussion Paper No. 04/2010-011 LISANNE SANDERS, Tilburg University - CentER for Economic Research, Netspar It is common practice for public pension schemes to offer individuals the option to delay benefit claiming until after the normal retirement age and adjust the annual benefit level as a result. This adjustment is often not actuarially neutral with respect to the age at which benefits are claimed. The degree of actuarial nonequivalence varies by interest rates as well as individual characteristics such as gender and age. In this paper we show that actuarial nonequivalence can imply that deferring benefit claiming is suboptimal, irrespective of the preferences of the individual. Specifically, we derive preference-free conditions under which delaying benefit claiming is dominated by claiming benefits early, and using them to buy super-replicating annuity products from an insurance company. We find that the degree of actuarial nonequivalence in public pension schemes is such that such dominating strategies can exist even when the purchase of annuities would be significantly more costly than what is currently observed. If individuals choose to strategically exploit these dominating strategies, this will affect benefit claiming behavior, which in turn affects long run program costs. "What Incentives to Retirement Does Social Security Provide? The Uruguayan Case (Qué Incentivos al Retiro Genera la Seguridad Social? El Caso Uruguayo) (Spanish)" Universidad de la Republica Department of Economics Working Paper No. 23/09 IGNACIO ALVAREZ, affiliation not provided to SSRN The activity rate of mature men has increased in Uruguay in recent decades. This trend is remarkably different from what has been observed in most developed and Latin American countries. We analyze in this paper the incentives to retire implicit in the main social security program of Uruguay. We find that mature men tend to experience significant social security wealth losses if they postpone retirement. These losses tend to represent a greater share of workers wages in Uruguay than in developed countries. The 1996 social security reform reduced the losses significantly and, in some cases, turned them into gains, providing incentives to postpone retirement. It is unclear yet what effects these changes will have on retirement. So far, only in the case of women a clear increase in the retirement age has been observed and it seems to have been caused by the increase in the minimum retirement age, rather than in changes in social security wealth. "Income of the Elderly Population Age 65 and Over, 2008" EBRI Notes, Vol. 31, No. 6, June 2010 KENNETH J. MCDONNELL, Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) The U.S. retirement income system - including employment-based retirement plans, Social Security, individual savings, and post-retirement employment - can be assessed in part by examining the income of the current elderly population (age 65 and older). This paper reviews the latest available data on the older population's income (from the U.S. Census Bureau's March 2009 Current Population Survey) and how it has changed over time, as well as how the elderly's reliance on these sources varies across demographic characteristics. In 2008, Social Security was the largest source of income for those currently age 65 and older, accounting for 39.8 percent of their income on average. Pension and annuities income was 19.7 percent, income from assets 13.0 percent, and income from earnings was 25.6 percent. Nearly all individuals (89.2 percent) age 65 and over were receiving income from Social Security in 2008, while 55.3 percent received income from assets, 35.4 percent received income from pensions and annuities, and 20.4 percent received income from earnings. GAOBO PANG, Towers Watson This stochastic simulation analysis quantifies the range of possible funding costs and volatilities for private sponsors of traditional defined benefit, defined contribution, and hybrid (cash balance) plans. Plan provisions of comparable benefit generosity are considered, as are current funding requirements and practice. The model simulations include a comprehensive view of the uncertainties in asset and labor markets. The results show that costs and risks for sponsors vary significantly with plan type, funding strategy and participant demographics. Throughout the scenarios, the hybrid plan exhibits good features of cost efficiency and risk reduction to the plan sponsor.
Email: dpark@adb.org
Email: L.Sanders@tilburguniversity.nl
ANJA DE WAEGENAERE, Tilburg University - Center for Economic Research (CentER)
Email: A.M.B.deWaegenaere@uvt.nl
THEO NIJMAN, Tilburg University - Center and Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Email: Nyman@uvt.nl
Email: nachalca@gmail.com
NATALIA DA SILVA, affiliation not provided to SSRN
Email: natydasilva@gmail.com
ALVARO FORTEZA, Facultad de Ciencias Socilaes, Universidad de la República, Uruguay
Email: alvarof@decon.edu.uy
IANINA ROSSI, Universidad de la Republica - Departamento de Economía (dECON)
Email: ianina@decon.edu.uy
Email: MCDONNELL@EBRI.ORG
The PDF for the above title, published in the June 2010 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another June 2010 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: "Examination of the Short-term Impact of the COBRA Premium Subsidy and Characteristics of the COBRA Population."
Email: gaobo.pang@towerswatson.com
MARK J. WARSHAWSKY, Towers Watson
Email: mark.warshawsky@watsonwyatt.com
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Orszag calls for Social Security reform
Outgoing OMB director Peter Orszag, himself the author of a book on Social Security reform, is urging policymakers to take on the challenge, according to Dow Jones: "Despite the fact it is not the most substantial contributor to our long-term fiscal gap, we also need to restore solvency to Social Security," he said at an event on the topic at the National Press Club. "Not only will putting Social Security on sound footing help to some degree with our overall long-term budget picture, making adjustments sooner rather than later...will provide greater certainty to future Social Security beneficiaries and also allow us to make adjustments that are both gradual and fair." For those interested, the provisions of Orszag's proposal, co-authored with economist Peter Diamond (currently headed to the Federal Reserve Board), are available here. While the proposal contains a number of benefit reductions, principally for higher earners, most of the leg-work toward solvency is done on the tax end, both in terms of raising the payroll tax rate, the tax ceiling and imposing a surtax on earnings above the ceiling. The chart below shows system costs relative to GDP for the Diamond-Orszag proposal relative to current law. While there are cost reductions toward the end of the period – and, importantly, Diamond-Orszag differs from current law in that it can actually afford to pay what it promises – my own view is that we need to restrain Social Security costs given the other pressures on the budget. An extra couple of percent of GDP might not be a huge deal if it were the only costs we were looking at. But Medicare and Medicaid don't look as if they're going to be fixed anytime soon, and it's much harder to substitute individual saving for those kinds of benefits relative to Social Security, where a modest benefit reduction could be compensated for by a modest increase in 401(k) contributions. 
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