The comparability of state-local versus private sector pay has become a major issue in the wake of the financial crisis. Funded levels of public pension plans declined sharply, and governments’ ability to make required contributions has been severely constrained by the collapse of state-local budgets.

The Great Recession has resulted in the highest national unemployment rate in nearly 30 years, and those who find themselves unemployed remain jobless longer than ever before. In response, the federal government has extended unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for up to 99 weeks, almost a year and a half longer than normal durations.

Pension funds were worth around 27trillion dollarsin 2007 just before the crisis.Total world GDP at the time was 55 trillion dollars according to the World Bank. Around half the funds’ investments were in the property market and corporate bonds and deposits. After rising steadily for the previous five years, stock markets collapsed in 2008, as did property markets, and the value of pension fund assets fell by 3.5 trillion dollars.

As the need for investment in infrastructure continues to grow, private sector financing for infrastructure projects has developed around the world. Given the long-term growth and (potentially) low correlation aspects of infrastructure investments, pension funds have also shown interest in increasing their exposure to this area, along with their move into alternative assets.

The good practices reflect what pension regulatory and supervisory authorities usually expect to examine when assessing the risk management of pension funds that use alternative investments and derivatives. They outline how supervisors should oversee such investments and suggest possible regulatory controls.

The character of the good practices emphasises the overriding principle that it is the responsibility of pension funds to develop their own alternative investment and derivatives policies in a responsible manner. As such, they may also help and encourage pension funds to improve their risk management practices and thereby use these instruments safely and effectively.

This paper examines the role of guarantees in DC pension plans, in particular minimum investment return guarantees during the accumulation phase. The main goal is to assess the cost and benefits of different return guarantees.

Proposals to ‘increase the retirement age’ under Social Security now appear frequently as part of plans to close the program’s projected long-term deficit. These proposals usually call for an increase in the age at which unreduced benefits are paid. That age, now 66, is scheduled to increase to 67 for everyone turning 62 in 2022 or later.

Economic theory suggests that individual decisions about consumption, saving, and labor supply should be directly linked to subjective expectations about future events. This project uses panel data from the Health and Retirement Study from 1994-2008 merged to data on a number of local and high frequency macroeconomic indicators to estimate how individual expectations respond to fluctuations in the local and national macroeconomy. Our results suggest that individuals revise their expectations in response to both local and national macroeconomic fluctuations in ways that appear to make sense, and that this is stronger for respondents with higher levels of education.

Until recently, people with Defined Contribution (DC) pension savings were effectively required by Government regulations to purchase an annuity with their pension fund by the time they reached age 75. Since April 2011 the Government has lifted the effective requirement to annuitise. This Briefing Note summaries the main findings of a PPI research report, which estimates the number of people who might be able to take advantage of the new flexible options for accessing private DC pension savings and explores the possible impact of this policy change on low, median and high earners.

Fra 2011 ble det innført nye fleksible uttaksregler for alderspensjon. Hovedprinsippet er at pensjonen blir justert for uttaksalder slik at utsatt uttak gir høyere årlig pensjon. Dette kan i teorien gi et press på de helserelaterte trygdeytelsene – sykepenger, arbeidsavklaringspenger og uførepensjon – fordi flere venter med å ta ut alderspensjon og heller satser på andre ytelser hvis de oppfyller vilkårene for dette. Det er særlig i privat sektor det kan være risiko for dette.

Fleksibel pensjoneringsalder ble innført fra januar 2011. Frem til september 2011 var det drøye 30 000 personer som hadde benyttet seg av muligheten til å ta ut alderspensjon før 67 år. Hele fem av seks av de nye mottakerne var menn. En del av denne forskjellen skyldes at flere kvinner enn menn allerede hadde benyttet seg av andre pensjonsordninger, og at det er flere kvinner enn menn som ikke har høy nok pensjonsopptjening til å ta ut alderspensjon før 67 år. Men selv
om vi korrigerer for dette, er det en langt høyere andel menn som har tatt ut alderspensjon.

401(k) plans – the main retirement savings vehicle for millions of workers – allow participants to save on a tax-deferred basis. This tax incentive is more valuable to workers in high-income families than workers in low-income families because they face higher marginal income tax rates. Not surprisingly, then, studies of the distributional effects of 401(k)s find that they mainly benefit high-income workers. However, these studies assume that employer contributions to 401(k)s do not affect the total compensation that each worker receives – that is, every worker “pays for” employer contributions in the form of lower wages. This brief challenges this assumption, testing whether employer contributions may actually increase total compensation for low-income workers, who may be more reluctant than high-income workers to accept wage reductions in exchange for retirement saving contributions...