SAVINGS IN TIMES OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE: LESSONS FROM THE GERMAN EXPERIENCE

Pension reforms in many developed countries make individuals shoulder a bigger share of longevity and income risks. The desired response is that individuals accumulate private assets for retirement. Whether this actually takes place, is of paramount relevance for scientists and policy makers. We take Germany as an example: Twenty years of pension reform have transformed the monolithic German pension system into a multipillar system. Formerly generous public pension benefits are gradually being reduced, whereas substantial incentives are granted to occupational and private saving schemes. Has this transition worked out? We survey the reform steps and households’ reactions: How did individuals adjust their labor market behavior? How did private and occupational pension plans take off? How do behavioral adjustments vary in the population? Most Germans adapted to the new situation. Both actual and expected retirement decisions changed and the share of households without supplementary pensions decreased from 73% to 39% in little more than a decade. This is a remarkable success. Nonetheless, households with low education, low income and less financial education did neither adjust their retirement behavior nor pick up supplementary pension plans and are thus likely to face difficulties in bridging the gap arising in future pension income.     

THE EFFECTS OF PENSION FUNDS ON MARKETS PERFORMANCE: A REVIEW

The worldwide reforming process of pension systems triggered by the demographic transition and globalization has led several countries to implement multi‐pillar pension systems and enhance pension funds. For this reason the studies on the effects that pension funds exert on markets performance have been flourishing in the last decades. In this paper, we provide an updated review of the empirical advances in this field of study, with particular focus on the effects that pension funds produce on labour markets, financial markets and economic growth.     

Understanding pension communications at the organizational level: Insights from bounded rationality theory & implications for HRM

This paper applies concepts from bounded rationality theory to develop an integrative model to understand how pension scheme structure and pension scheme communication impact pension participation and contribution rates at organizational level. Organizational pension policies create framing effects that can have intended and unintended consequences depending on how they impact on employees' cognitive processes. Organizational pension communication policy impacts employee pension outcomes through the interaction between fast-acting, automatic System 1 and deliberative, calculating System 2 that typically endorses and occasionally overrides System 1 judgments. System 1 exhibits mental short-cuts (heuristics) and systematic biases. The likelihood of a System 2 challenge to System 1 depends on the personal, socio-demographic and economic characteristics of the individuals within the workforce. We propose that those within the HR function, who understand framing effects, can develop pension policies that positively affect pension plan outcomes at the organization level, specifically the pension participation and average contribution rates, using a combination of policies that in some cases promote System 2 endorsement and in other cases, System 2 engagement.     

Accounting for Changes in Income Inequality: Decomposition Analyses for the UK, 1978–2008

We analyse income inequality in the UK from 1978 to 2009 in order to understand why income inequality rose very rapidly from 1978 to 1991 but then remained broadly unchanged. We find that inequality in earnings among employees has risen fairly steadily since 1978, but other factors that caused income inequality to rise before 1991 have since gone into reverse. Inequality in investment and pension income has fallen since 1991, as has inequality between those with and without employment. Furthermore, certain household types – notably the elderly and those with young children – which had relatively low incomes in the period to 1991 have seen their incomes converge with others.     

养老金制度及其改革——基于不同福利模式的分析

不同福利模式国家的养老金制度在建立之初就呈现出不同的特征,其发展路径也有所差异,但在结构、参数、管理体系方面的改革呈现出共同的规律。各国基本都建成了多支柱体系或多层次体系;普遍采取了提高费率、延长缴费年限和延迟退休、调整待遇等方式来进行参数改革;并对养老金管理机构采取了横向整合或纵向的集中化改革,建立了养老金投资监管机构。中国逐步建成了三层次养老金体系,并在个人账户、待遇计发等方面进行了参数调整,同时在统筹层级、征缴机构、投资管理体系方面进行了改革。中国养老金制度仍存在未实现全国统筹、结构失衡、基金可持续性差等问题,可借鉴国际经验,在结构、参数、管理机构等方面进行改革。     

Book Reviews

Changes that have been introduced in Poland in the 1990s have affected not only economic but also social life. These changes concern, among others, the pension scheme which started in Poland on 1 January 1999. This paper's goal is to present the major principles underlying the pension scheme reform in Poland vis-a-vis systems existing in other central and east European countries. They aim at replacing the relatively inefficient redistribution-based system with a mixed pension scheme, largely based on the capital reserve approach. A comparison of solutions employed in the selected countries will allow us to capture trends characterizing the evolution of the pension schemes.     

养老保险统筹层次收入再分配系数及全国统筹类型研究

本文从社会统筹养老保险的收入再分配功能入手,根据养老金计发办法及约束因素,提出“基础养老金收入再分配系数”原理和数理模型,据此延伸出分层平均统筹类型与分比例统筹类型下全国统筹各方案,测算全国统筹各方案下的收入再分配系数并依据希克斯改进、生存公平、劳动公平三种检验,评估全国统筹各方案的收入再分配效果。研究表明：选择方案5（10%替代率中央统筹分比例统筹类型）作为养老保险全国统筹起步方案,实现了适度的收入再分配,可以稳妥地衔接地区之间的利益关系,实现省级统筹向全国统筹的合理对接。     

Merging National Insurance Contributions and Income Tax: Lessons of History

This paper is a response to the British Chancellor of the Exchequer's consultation on closer integration of the operation of National Insurance contributions and income tax. Our historical research on proposals for a complete merger of the two systems enables people interested in tax reform to draw on experience and ideas of officials who grappled with issues similar to those facing us today. We show that officials identified the problem of maintaining increasing numbers of elderly people as long ago as 1950, and identify when and why the British government adopted a pay‐as‐you‐go basis for the National Insurance Fund. We conclude that the advantages of National Insurance contributions separate from income tax are not negligible, but that a merger would be fairer than the present system. Our principal concern is that the contributory principle may raise unrealistic expectations regarding state pensions as it encourages a mistaken belief that these are paid from contributions made by pensioners in the past. We therefore recommend that the government should produce an annual statement showing how state pension liabilities are to be met.     

Australia's retirement income system

This paper reviews the current reforms to Australia's retirement income structure which now incorporates a means-tested age pension, a compulsory retirement enefit system which is fully unded in the private sector and a voluntary savings scheme. This approach has been widely discussed in he international scene and some consider it to epresent an ideal structure. However, a number of fundamental problems remain and these are discussed.     

论企业年金负债的会计处理对企业资本结构的影响

实施企业年金计划企业的会计报表显示，这些企业的财务杠杆率相对企业的举债能力而言普遍偏低，但如果企业将年金计划的偿付责任作为企业长期负债合并到企业资产负债表中，则这类企业的低财务杠杆率相对于最优财务杠杆率的差距将减小。本文从企业年金缴费对应征税收入影响和会计处理的角度，分析了企业年金计划对企业边际税率和企业资本结构调整的作用。     

The Debate on Pension Systems: The Paradigmatic Cases of Chile and Spain

This article is focused on pension systems in the light of two case studies that are antagonistic within the capitalist economy. On the one hand, the Spanish pension scheme, based on the principle of intergenerational solidarity, was achieved by the working‐class after decades of struggle. It constitutes the backbone of the Spanish social security system, thanks to the creation and development of indirect and deferred wages. On the other hand, the Chilean pension scheme, first imposed by the Pinochet dictatorship, is based on a funded system and private management. It rejects the principle of solidarity and, therefore, it makes impossible the construction of a decent pension structure. The comparison of the Spanish and the Chilean pension systems can be expressed in just one revealing fact: while the average pension in Spain is 79 percent of the last salary earned, benefits in Chile barely reach 33 percent for male workers and 25 percent for female workers. The analysis of both cases is framed in terms of the critique of political economy, in direct opposition to the current mainstream in economics. Instead of assuming methodological individualism and a harmonious view of human societies, as orthodoxy does, the critical paradigm conceives of capitalist economy as a dialectical process determined by the existence of social classes with different and opposed interests.     

From ‘social club’ to ‘integrated membership scheme’: developing membership schemes strategically

Changes in the economic and political climate have resulted in income generation becoming increasingly important for cultural organisations and one method of achieving this is to develop closer relationships with individuals, for example, members. Friends' schemes (also known as membership schemes, societies and organisations) exist in a variety of formats and provide organisations with a range of benefits in addition to their income‐generation potential. These include advocacy, influence and a stable volunteer base. This paper makes a contribution in three areas of cultural management: it presents the findings of a study of friends' schemes within large museums and galleries in London and identifies distinctive typologies of scheme; creates a framework that practitioners can use as a diagnostic tool to analyse their own scheme; and finally, provides strategic direction to assist in the evolution of membership schemes. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

EFFECT OF CROSS‐BORDER HEALTH CARE ON QUALITY AND PROGRESSIVITY OF FINANCING

In this study, we examine the effect of cross‐border health care in terms of public health insurance. We consider its effect on healthcare quality and progressivity of financing. We use a two‐country Hotelling model in which consumers are divided into two groups: high and low innate‐talent consumers. Aiming to maximize social welfare, governments impose a progressive income tax on consumers to provide healthcare services. Assuming that a payment scheme for healthcare services is based on diagnosis‐related group pricing, which has been adapted in many countries, we obtain the following results. The promotion of cross‐border health care does not influence healthcare quality or the progressivity of financing in patient‐importing countries, but does reduce healthcare quality and influence the progressivity of financing in patient‐exporting countries.     

现收现付制养老保险对储蓄的影响——基于中国面板数据的实证研究

本文计算了我国养老保险现收现付制部分财富价值,并运用中国30个省份2002～2007年的相关面板数据考察了我国现收现付制养老保险对于储蓄的影响。研究结果表明,现收现付制养老保险对我国居民消费有显著的正向影响,即存在对储蓄的挤出;养老保险财富对消费的影响小于收入对消费的影响;我国养老保险对储蓄的挤出效应并不小,同时在不断扩大。因此,针对我国储蓄率过高的问题,可以通过扩大养老保险覆盖面等方法增加养老保险财富,促进经济的健康发展。     

Labor supply and the optimality of Social Security

Traditional economic theory predicts that an unfunded public pension system can be justified on the basis of its ability to provide intergenerational transfers, and also for its ability to provide partial insurance against mortality and labor income risks. In this paper, I demonstrate that the quantitative importance of these traditional roles depends on how the pension system distorts households' labor supply decisions. Using a general-equilibrium life-cycle consumption model calibrated to the U.S. economy, I show that these distortions can be large enough to erase much of the traditional welfare gains from Social Security. I also find that this fact is robust within the range of labor supply elasticities usually encountered in the macroeconomic literature.     

Corporate sustainability and institutional shareholders: The pressure of social responsible pension funds on environmental firm practices

This paper analyses the role of social responsible (SR) pension funds as influential institutional shareholders in the corporate sustainability of investee firms. We study the influence of 197 UK SR pension funds on 1,253 firms with 31 environmental, social, and governance (ESG) indicators from 2002 to 2018. According to the indicator nature, we perform logit and ordinary least square (OLS) estimations with panel error correction models to control causality. Our results show that SR pension funds significantly impact on 41.93% of the ESG indicators studied. We find that larger pension‐fund shareholding positively influences on ESG firm performance and encourages proactive behaviour towards environmental practices. Firms with larger pension‐fund shareholding are more likely to use renewable energies and disclose environmental information, increasing the firm transparency towards stakeholders. This study contributes to understand that, besides stakeholders, institutional shareholders (SR pension funds) demand sustainable development and are able to transfer important values for the society and the environment to corporate governance.     

养老社区服务意愿与市场需求分析——基于调查问卷的天津市个案研究

随着老龄化程度的不断加深,养老问题成为社会及学界关注的焦点。养老社区作为一种新的养老模式在国内仍处于试水阶段。采取问卷调查的形式详细分析养老社区消费群体的消费特征,包括年龄结构、收入结构、教育程度和消费理念等,深入分析对养老服务的需求程度和养老社区发展的市场前景。     

Optimal annuitisation in a deterministic financial environment

Decisions in Economics and Finance - The global reforms to public pension schemes over the last thirty years have progressively reduced individuals’ post-retirement social security income. In...     

Understanding Italian Inequality Trends*

This article develops a unifying framework for analysing the effects of: (i) the changing distribution of individual incomes by main factor sources, (ii) the increasing participation of wives in the labour force, and (iii) the changing distribution of family types on the distinctive trends towards inequality in equivalent household income in Italy between 1977 and 2004. Changes in the distribution of work and pension incomes explain most of the trend. The higher average likelihood of wage‐earning wives had an unequalizing effect on households on the left tail of the income distribution. Little is explained by the changing distribution of family types.     

Precautionary and Entrepreneurial Savings: New Evidence from German Households*

Various studies interpret the positive correlation between income risk and wealth as evidence of significant precautionary savings. However, these high estimates emerge from pooling non‐entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, without controlling for heterogeneity. This article provides evidence for Germany based on representative panel data that includes private wealth balance sheets. Entrepreneurs, who face high income risk, hold more wealth than employees, but this tendency is not because of precautionary motives. Instead, they appear to save more for their old age, because they are usually not covered by statutory pension insurance. The analysis accounts for endogeneity in entrepreneurial choice and heterogeneous risk attitudes.