Annuity Markets and Retirement Security

The growing importance of defined contribution pension arrangements has drawn increased attention to the means by which retired people draw down their assets. Current UK law requires annuitisation of at least a fraction of defined contribution plan accumulations. Annuity markets have recently attracted some criticism with respect to pricing and the available range of product options. This paper describes a key feature of voluntary annuity markets: the presence of ‘adverse selection’. This is the tendency of annuitants to live longer than non‐annuitants, since individuals who know that they are likely to die soon do not purchase annuities. The paper presents information that quantifies the importance of adverse selection in the setting of private annuity prices and discusses the role of compulsory annuitisation requirements in reducing it. Requiring individuals to participate in the annuity market can reduce selection effects, at the cost of reducing individuals' range of retirement income options.     

Financing Retirement in the European Union

This paper explores how EU countries can address various challenges (including the aging of the population) affecting their systems of old-age income support. It presents two scenarios illustrating the most important uncertainties surrounding the major developments that affect the pension systems of the EU. To diversify these risks, EU governments should act on several fronts. In addition to the formation of human capital (especially that of children), employment (especially that of older workers) should be boosted. This calls for social insurance reform with more emphasis on individual saving schemes. Pension schemes should be more explicit about how they share demographic and other risks. Countries that currently rely heavily on public pay-as-you-go (PAYG) schemes should stimulate private pensions by gradually reducing PAYG benefits collected by high-income earners, by issuing new financial instruments, and by conducting intergenerational risk sharing through the tax system.     

The Political Feasibility of Increasing the Retirement Age: Lessons from a Ballot on the Female Retirement Age

In 1998, the Swiss voters approved of an increase in the female retirement age within the public pension system from 62 to 64. The referendum, being on a single issue only, offers a unique opportunity to explore the political feasibility of pension reforms and to apply theoretical models of life-cycle decision making. Estimates carried out with municipality data suggest that the outcome of the vote conforms well with predictions drawn from a theoretical model. Young agents, elderly and—to a lesser extent—middle-aged men favor an increase in female retirement age, while middle-aged women strongly oppose it. Richer communities and those with a high proportion of self-employed or a low fraction of blue-collar workers are more likely to opt for a higher retirement age. Ideological preferences and regional differences also play a considerable role.     

Income Inequality and Mortality: A Norwegian Perspective*

While Norway has experienced income growth accompanied by a large decline in mortality during the past several decades, little is known about the distribution of these improvements in longevity across the income distribution. Using municipality‐level income and mortality data, we show that the stark income gradient in infant mortality across municipalities in the 1950s mostly closed in the late 1960s. However, the income gradient in mortality for older age categories across municipalities persisted until 2010 and only flattened thereafter. Further, the infant mortality gap between rich and poor Norwegian families based on individual‐level data persisted several decades longer than the gap between rich and poor municipalities and only finally closed in the early 21st century.     

Financial Structure and Income Inequality: Evidence from China

This study investigates the relationship between financial structure and income inequality in China and explores a channel for changes of financial structure to influence income inequality. Our results suggest that, relative to total bank credit, an increase in the raised capital from the stock market reduces income inequality, whereas a rise of turnover in the stock market augments income inequality. Financial structure affects income inequality by influencing the development of medium-sized enterprises. Our evidence supports the financial structure relevancy view. To reduce income inequality, the Chinese government should help to promote equity financing and decrease excessive speculation on the stock market.     

Geographic Inequality in Income and Mortality in Germany*

We use data from the German Federal Statistical Office on population counts, births, deaths and income to study the development of socio‐economic inequality in mortality rates from 1990 to 2015 for different age groups and both genders. Ranking the 401 German districts by average disposable income per capita, we observe large inequalities in district‐level mortality rates in 1990, which had almost disappeared, or at least been flattened considerably, by 2015 particularly for infants, children and the very old. The most important driver of this reduction in inequality is German reunification in 1990. As indicated by more detailed analyses comparing districts in the former East and the former West, even five years after reunification there was a large gap in disposable income, with all Eastern districts considerably poorer than the poorest district in the West. At the same time, mortality rates were higher for all age groups and both genders in the East. Income has caught up, to the extent that there are equally poor districts in the East and West in most recent years (although the West is still much richer on average). Mortality rates in the East have improved considerably and are even below mortality rates for similarly poor districts in the West in the most recent data.     

Financial Development and Income Inequality: Long-Run Relationship and Short-Run Heterogeneity

This article examines the dynamic relationship between financial development and income inequality using the PMG. We find that financial development will reduce inequality in the long run, while it can increase inequality in the short run. Using the estimates of country-specific short-run coefficients, we also find that adverse short-run effects of financial development are associated with the vulnerabilities of countries in terms of their greater susceptibility to crises and poor quality of governance. Good governance seems to be important for achieving inclusive growth though financial development.     

Aging and Retirement: Evidence Across Countries

How do demographic factors influence retirement? Using a large cross-country data set, I show that in countries with a larger share of elderly in their population the length of retirement is longer. This result holds true if I control for wealth effects, and when the effective labor force participation rate of the elderly is used instead of the official retirement age. Retirement policies and the social security size are strictly related: a new variable, representing the aggregate relevance of retirement policies, turns out to be significant in explaining the size of social security. Finally, the total amount of social security transfers is positively related with the increase of the elderly population, while in per capita terms this relation is not significant.     

分项收入不平等效应与收入结构的优化

从分项收入角度考察城乡收入不平等,不仅能判断产生收入不平等的原因,还能判断什么分项收入有利于增加收入总量;不仅能量化收入不平等效应,还能根据收入不平等效应来优化收入结构。研究发现,分项收入具有性质不同、大小不等的收入不平等效应,其中工资性收入扩大收入不平等的效应最强、转移性收入次之、财产性收入最小;经营性收入是唯一具有缩小收入不平等效应的分项收入。据此,我们认为,城乡居民收入结构优化的方向应该是,稳定维持工资性收入、适当调整转移性收入、适度控制财产性收入并努力增加经营性收入。     

Changes in Assortative Matching and Inequality in Income: Evidence for the UK*

The extent to which like-with-like marry is important for inequality as well as for the outcomes of children who result from the union. In this paper, we present evidence on changes in assortative mating and its implications for household inequality in the UK. Our approach contrasts with others in the literature in that it is consistent with an underlying model of the marriage market. We argue that a key advantage of this approach is that it creates a direct connection between changes in assortativeness in marriage and changes in the value of marriage for the various possible matches by education group. Our empirical results do not show a clear direction of change in assortativeness in the UK between the birth cohorts of 1945–54 and 1965–74. We find that changes in assortativeness pushed income inequality up slightly, but that the strong changes in education attainment across the two cohorts contributed to scale down inequality.     

人力资本、社会保障与中国居民收入不平等——基于个体相对剥夺视角

本文通过Kakwani个体相对剥夺指数测度中国城乡居民的收入不平等程度,并分析了人力资本和社会保障对居民个体收入不平等的影响机制及其城乡差异。研究发现:人力资本积累和社会保障制度能够有效抑制居民收入不平等程度的恶化,人力资本和社会保障主要通过收入增长效应和收入差距减缓效应来降低居民收入不平等程度,且稳健性检验结果依然显著;城乡之间不同收入人群在人力资本积累和社会保障再分配上存在群体差异性和阶层分化,导致城乡居民收入不平等的异质性。加强人力资本要素集聚和提高生产效率,构建城乡一体化的社会保障体系,遏制城乡居民多维贫困的代际传递,对于降低城乡居民收入不平等尤为关键。     

城市化对于中国居民收入不均的影响

本篇论文重新定义了城市化和中国人口收入不均的关系,以中国居民的收入不均变化是否遵循着库兹涅茨倒U型曲线为切入点。根据本文的研究,尽管中国城市地区和农村地区收入不均的变化没有遵循库兹涅茨的倒U型假说,但是中国总的收入不均变化遵循了这一假说。中国总体收入不均遵循倒U假说的主要原因就是：由城市化导致的收入不均已经在近十年来进入下降的阶段,从而使得中国总体收入不均水平也在下降或使其加速缓慢。在未来,对于总体收入不均水平的下降,两项政策将刻不容缓：一方面,限制劳动力流动的户籍制度必须打破,从而使城市化加快;另一方面,农村居民的收入必须尽快提高,从而使城乡差距缩小。     

Internal Migration Decision and Rural Income Inequality: A Counterfactual-Based Gini Decomposition Analysis

We examine the decision between internal migration and home production for Chinese rural households and its impact on rural income distribution. By constructing counterfactual scenarios under which households are allowed to switch freely between internal migration and home production, we find that the migrant households in the studied region could have earned higher simulated income if they choose to work in local sectors, with potential sample selection bias corrected by the two-step Heckit method. Based on the counterfactual results, we conduct a Gini decomposition analysis and illustrate that rural income inequality would also be reduced if migrants choose to work locally. The findings are compatible with the fact that a nontrivial portion of the internal migration in China tends to be involuntary.     

人民币汇率波动与收入不平等:影响渠道及应对

本文基于2006—2018年我国28个省份的省级面板数据,探讨了人民币汇率波动对收入不平等产生的影响以及影响渠道。研究结果表明,人民币汇率波动的增加会通过外商直接投资渠道与就业渠道扩大收入不平等。因此,在有序推进人民币汇率市场化、人民币汇率波动逐渐增加的背景下,应稳步推进经济发展与扩大就业,促进外汇市场的发展与完善,加强劳动力市场的建设,完善失业人员培训保障机制,不断提升经济开放程度及教育水平,以避免人民币汇率波动对收入不平等的负面影响。     

Private Pension Arrangements and Retirement in Britain*

This paper looks at the policy debate surrounding private pensions and retirement patterns in the UK. Recent increases in longevity have led not only to increased pressures in public pensions but also to corresponding increases in the importance of private pensions in the UK and changes in the way in which they are structured. We consider the economic implications of these changes, and in particular the increased importance of defined contribution plans. In addition, we discuss the prospects for future trends in retirement ages.     

Income Inequality,Growth, and the Enlargement of the European Union

This study investigates the relation between income inequality and economic growth, namely, the Kuznets curve, in the context of EU enlargement. The results have implications regarding how the latest enlargement of the European Union affects the relationship between income inequality and growth, for both EU member countries and the European Union as a region. Estimation results show that there is no evidence of a significant original or reverse Kuznets curve for any of the groups of countries in this study. Therefore, empirical results suggest that the latest enlargement, and a possible future accession of the candidates, may not change the fact that a Kuznets curve does not exist for the European Union.     

A Study on the Effect of Financial Inclusion on the Relationship Between Income Inequality and Economic Growth

In this article, we attempt to estimate whether financial inclusion, expressed as financial accessibility, has a positive effect on reducing income inequality. Furthermore, we estimate the effect of such financial inclusion on economic growth by reducing income inequality. From the results of our empirical analysis, we can draw the following three conclusions. First, income inequality has a very negative effect on GDP growth. The negative relationship between income inequality and GDP growth is strong in low-income countries. In addition, income inequality has a stronger effect on reducing economic growth in high-fragility countries. Second, progressivity is not a major factor in reducing income inequality in low-income countries or in high-fragility countries. Finally, financial inclusion improves the relationship between income inequality and economic growth. The reduction in income inequality through financial inclusion changes the negative relationship between income inequality and economic growth into a positive relationship. This trend is stronger in high-fragility countries than in low-fragility countries.     

Debt and Financial Vulnerability on the Verge of Retirement

We analyze older individuals’ debt and financial vulnerability using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS). In the HRS, we compare three groups of people age 56–61 in 1992, 2004, and 2010, to assess cross-cohort changes in debt over time. Two waves of the NFCS (2012 and 2015) provide additional insights into debt management and older individuals’ capacity to shield themselves against shocks. We conclude that recent cohorts hold more debt and face more financial insecurity than in the past. This will render them particularly vulnerable to forecasted interest rate increases.     

渐进式差异化退休年龄的决定机制、经验借鉴与政策建议

退休年龄本质上是劳动者在职期间的劳动贡献与退休后所享福利之间的均衡。公平、合理、科学的确定退休年龄,对劳动者在生命周期不同阶段(在职期间与退休之后)的福利具有十分重要的影响。借鉴我国台湾地区经验,结合大陆实际,以工作年限为基础,采用渐进式、差异化的退休年龄政策,即采取"95(99)=标准退休年龄+工作年限"的思路,在"95制"、"96制"、"97制"、"98制"和"99制"五个方案进行优选渐进,对不同类型劳动者(工种、受教育程度、性别等)应采取差异化的退休年龄政策。