Two trends in retirement wealth components are being observed in the Netherlands, specifically in pension and housing wealth. Pension wealth will become more risky due to the gradual evolution of 2nd pillar pensions from defined benefit plans towards collective and individual defined contribution plans. These changes in plan type implies pension risks have to be borne increasingly by individual plans participants. Net home wealth at retirement on the other hand will become less risky as recently interest-only mortgages are forbidden.

The paper motivates and describes the tax treatment of German retirement benefits and pensions after the 2005 reform initiated by the German Federal Constitutional Court. The main question is whether this reform has produced a "level playing field" among the many instruments generating retirement income in Germany. The paper briefly outlines rational principles for the taxation of retirement benefits and pensions and compares these with current practice in Germany and abroad.

This document is intended to provide a description of the UK pensions system for the purposes of considering pensions policy.This guide primarily reflects the current position of the UK pension system as at 24 June 2015.

Demographic, policy and market changes mean that in future, retirees will be living longer, entitled to state pension later, more likely to reach retirement with Defined Contribution (DC) savings, and experience flexibility of access to DC savings. Greater numbers of DC savers, coupled with flexibility, will increase the level of risk people with pension savings face at and during retirement.

This paper investigates whether individuals at the end of working life choose self-employment out of necessity and to what degree job search requirements for unemployment benefits induce people to become self-employed. For this purpose we analyze labor market transitions for people between the ages of 50 and 63 using a dynamic multinomial logit model with unobserved heterogeneity.

For many countries, age pension expenditure will increase dramatically over the next few decades due to a shift in demographics. In the literature, research and solutions have mostly been concerned with separate financing systems, such as pay-as-you-go, means-testing and superannuation. A broad comparison between the systems has received limited attention.

In the last decades all over the world pension policy reforms have tried to account for the changing demographic and socio-economic framework. An excellent starting point for economic analyses of reform strategies is the Mirrlees Review which argues that pension policy should simultaneously address pension benefit design and the taxation of pensions.

A rising share of individuals are spending at least some part of their working life abroad and acquiring pension rights. While the portability of pensions and other social benefits has received some analytical attention over the recent decade, limited analytical guidance currently exists on the taxation of retirement provisions within a country, and none for the taxation of internationally portable pensions.

This paper investigates whether individuals at the end of working life choose self-employment out of necessity and to what degree job search requirements for unemployment benefits induce people to become self-employed.

For many countries, age pension expenditure will increase dramatically over the next few decades due to a shift in demographics. In the literature, research and solutions have mostly been concerned with separate nancing systems, such as pay-as-you-go, means-testing and superannuation. A broad comparison between the systems has received limited attention.

According to the standard life cycle theory of consumption with quadratic preferences, anticipated income changes do not affect individuals’ consumption profiles because rational agents smooth their consumption over the life cycle using their savings.