Saving for Retirement—A Case for Financial Education in Germany and UK? An Economic Perspective

Demographic changes, tight public budgets, and reduced generosity of occupational pension plans shift the responsibility for an adequate retirement provision towards the individual. Applying the theoretical perspectives of Behavioural Finance and New Institutionalism to the domain of retirement provision offers insights into the difficulties individuals are facing in planning for retirement, carrying out, and revising plans. Lacking financial literacy seems to lie at the heart of the problem and points to a possible solution: providing financial education to consumers through non-governmental organizations and state-related agencies. This article is examining which role consumer education and consumer advice can play to enhance financial literacy with regard to pensions and old-age provision. As two case studies Germany and the UK are compared because the institutional set-up of the pension systems and the approaches towards consumer policy are very different. The case studies show that financial education with regard to old-age provision can be successful if it reaches consumers in their environment at life-stages where important decisions need to be made. To achieve that considerable efforts have to be taken in terms of funding and organizational set-up. However, evaluation is necessary to prove the effectiveness of the education especially for vulnerable consumer groups. If evaluation reveals that these groups cannot be targeted effectively or that consumers are not taking action subsequently to attending financial education, there might be a case for changing behaviour through the institutional set-up of pension schemes (i.e., through automatic enrolment) and using financial education as a supportive policy instrument.

Two studies of women's retirement incomes in Australia: assessing some outcomes of pluralism in economic research

To illustrate the potential use of plural research methods,two studies of Australian women's retirement incomes are examined.The first study employed quantitative microsimulation techniques.Its outcomes emphasised low lifetime earnings as a cause ofwomen's lower retirement incomes. The second study used an inductiveapproach known as grounded theory, and its conclusions emphasisedhousehold decision-making processes as a cause of both women'slow lifetime earnings and lower retirement incomes. Using Runde'scriteria for assessing causal explanations, a comparison ismade of the outcomes of the two studies. The conclusion is that,rather than being seen as competing accounts, the outcomes ofthe two varying research methods can be viewed as complementary.By demonstrating the different insights afforded by contrastingresearch methods, this paper provides some support for pluralismof research methods within the discipline of economics.     

Performance measurement of pension strategies: a case study of Danish life cycle products

The Danish pension markets of life cycle products have expanded considerably since its introduction in the beginning of the millennium. The market is maturing and pensioners have the choice between a wide area of different products. It is therefore about time that financial insurance technology is developed to guide the performance measurement of available products. In this paper we develop a simple first version of such a method and we investigate life cycle products recommended on the web of the four biggest commercial Danish pension companies on one day in February 2007. All considered products are outperformed by trivial benchmark products with constant stock proportion over time. Our approach is the following: for each life cycle product we first find a trivial benchmark product with the same long-term risk and then we compare the long-term return of the two equivalent products. We primarily consider value at risk and tail value at risk as risk measures, but we also include a study where the fair value of an interest guarantee is used as risk measure. We consider both long-term mean returns and long-term median returns. We hope that our new method will be regarded as a first step towards a scientifically based ranking of the quality of pension products.     

DEFINED CONTRIBUTION PLANS, DEFINED BENEFIT PLANS, AND THE ACCUMULATION OF RETIREMENT WEALTH

The private pension structure in the United States, once dominated by defined benefit (DB) plans, is currently divided between defined contribution (DC) and DB plans. Wealth accumulation in DC plans depends on a participant's contribution behavior and on financial market returns, while accumulation in DB plans is sensitive to a participant's labor market experience and to plan parameters. This paper simulates the distribution of retirement wealth under representative DB and DC plans. It uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to explore how asset returns, earnings histories, and retirement plan characteristics contribute to the variation in retirement wealth outcomes. We simulate DC plan accumulation by randomly assigning individuals a share of wages that they and their employer contribute to the plan. We consider several possible asset allocation strategies, with asset returns drawn from the historical return distribution. Our DB plan simulations draw earnings histories from the HRS, and randomly assign each individual a pension plan drawn from a sample of large private and public defined benefit plans. The simulations yield distributions of both DC and DB wealth at retirement. Average retirement wealth accruals under current DC plans exceed average accruals under private sector DB plans, although DC plans are also more likely to generate very low retirement wealth outcomes. The comparison of current DC plans with more generous public sector DB plans is less definitive, because public sector DB plans are more generous on average than their private sector DB counterparts.     

基于基金平衡指数的个人账户养老金调整策略

基于资产与负债构建的养老基金平衡指数,综合反映了基金的财务支付能力和资金使用效率。本文研究结果表明：把平衡指数内生至养老金调整模型后,可随着支付能力的变化而动态调整养老保障水平;当支付能力不足时,使用经过平衡指数调整后的记账利率,其效果要优于调整养老金增长率,而且更加符合生命周期消费理论和参保者的风险承受能力;从长期来看,经济类指标对平衡指数起关键作用,人口类指标的影响要小得多,表明此策略能有效降低人口老龄化产生的支付压力;本策略不仅具有内生性,而且更具稳健性和可操作性。     

Expectations in micro data: rationality revisited

An increasing number of longitudinal data sets collect expectations information regarding a variety of future individual level events and decisions, providing researchers with the opportunity to explore expectations over micro variables in detail. We present a theoretical framework and an econometric methodology to use that type of information to test the Rational Expectations (RE) hypothesis in models of individual behavior. This RE assumption at the micro level underlies a majority of the research in applied fields in economics, and it is the common foundation of most work in dynamic models of individual behavior. We present tests of three different types of expectations using two different panel data sets that represent two very different populations. In all three cases we cannot reject the RE hypothesis. Our results support a wide variety of models in economics, and other disciplines, that assume rational behavior. We would like to acknowledge outstanding research assistance from Huan Ni. The Michigan Retirement Research Center (MRRC) and the TIAA-CREF Institute made this research possible through their financial support of two related projects. Benítez-Silva also acknowledges the financial support from NIH grant AG1298502 on a related project, and also from the Fundación BBVA, and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through project number SEJ2005-08783-C04-01, and wants to thank the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland and the Department of Economics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra for their hospitality during the completion of this paper. Three anonymous referees provided excellent comments and suggestions. Any remaining errors are the authors’.     

Children's Migration Decisions and Elderly Support in China: Evidences from CHARLS Pilot Data

The purpose of this paper is to explain the determinants of migration in China with special concern for elderly support based on evidences from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) pilot data. We find parents’ needs for care significantly affect adult children’s participation in migrant labor market. Joint family decisions have also been made among adult siblings as far as elderly support is concerned. Different patterns of migrant labor force participation in Zhejiang and Gansu provinces largely reflect the differences between their respective migrant labor markets. Understanding of these new patterns of China’s internal migration helps policy makers in China and other developing counties formulate effective social policies, and consequently, a more appropriate urbanization path.     

延迟退休：个人理性与政府决策的冲突与平衡

通过个人退休决策和养老保险基金平衡模型,文章分析个人和政府的决策差异,首次将Leslie人口模型引入养老保险基金平衡公式,修正养老保险制度抚养比,以测算渐进式延迟退休时间表对养老保险基金缺口的影响。模型结果表明：在低利率、低初始就业年龄的现实条件下,强制延迟退休会造成个人福利损失,政策执行存在阻力。然而,延迟退休政策势在必行,是应对养老保险基金缺口的现实选择。面对决策冲突,政府应首先尽快统一退休年龄,以此为改革突破口,采取多种配套措施逐步推进退休年龄改革。     

Asset or burden? Impact of children on parents’ retirement

If parents receive financial support in retirement from their children, having more children with higher earning power may expedite their retirement. On the other hand, retirement may be delayed if parents are burdened with educational expenses for children. We empirically investigate how the quantity and the education of children influence their parents’ retirement decisions. Due to the endogeneity of childrearing in the retirement decision, we employ the instrumental variable method with twin births and child deaths as instruments. We find that parents retire earlier when they have more children and better educated children and they receive a significant amount of transfers from children.