In this report, we consider policies to help people appropriately manage their defined contribution (DC) pension wealth through later life. We draw on evidence in a report published alongside this one (Boileau, Cribb and Emmerson, 2025), which sets out key information on the landscape in which...

This report is one of two reports on the management of pension wealth in retirement conducted as part of the Pensions Review, led by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in partnership with the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust. In this report, we examine the decisions that older individuals face as...

The current system of private pension savings in the UK is based on employers choosing a workplace pension provider, to which contributions from the employee and employer are sent, and which invests the contributions on behalf of the employee. This means that when an individual leaves their...

This report examines ethnic differences in pension participation in the UK following the nationwide roll-out of automatic enrolment, the drivers of those gaps, and the consequences for wealth accumulation. It draws on an academic research paper (Cribb, O'Brien and Sturrock, 2025) published...

Im österreichischen Pensionsrecht ermöglicht eine durchgängige Erwerbskarriere eine Pensionshöhe von 80% des durchschnittlichen Erwerbseinkommens. In dieser Studie wird die Auswirkung einer allgemeinen zusätzlichen betrieblichen Altersvorsorge auf die Höhe der Erstpension untersucht. Eine...

We investigate how firms adjust corporate pension plans in response to economic policy uncertainty (EPU). Using a sample of US-listed firms, we find that firms increase pension underfunding levels when facing higher EPU. The result is robust to controlling for pension portfolio returns, discount...

Pension credits for care periods are a key policy lever to protect the pension rights of carers and support gender equality in pensions. They are designed to compensate for a break in 'working time' so that there are no significant gaps in pension entitlements. Pension care credit policies...

The study analyzes and assesses the economic and linguistic complexity of individual retirement products in Poland. For this purpose, an original multidimensional approach was used and various research methods were applied. We analyzed 75 out of 86 individual pension products (IKEs and IKZEs)...

Defined benefit (DB) pension plans are a primary type of pension schemes with the sponsor assuming most of the risks. Longevity-indexed bonds have been used to hedge or transfer risks in pension plans. Our objective is to study an aggregated DB pension plan's optimal risk management problem...

There is a large professional literature on the correct measurement of the funded status of and indicated employer contributions to government employee pension plans. But static measures do not provide a quantification of the risk that plans could represent in the future in various possible...

We examine who bears the costs of mandated workplace pension programs, exploiting the quasi-experimental rollout of automatic enrollment in the UK. Total compensation (take-home pay plus employer contributions) increases, driven by employer contributions, while the amount of take-home pay...

Retirement planning has been extensively studied in developed countries; however, it received scant scholarly attention in developing nations. Thus, this study examines the role of cognitive factors in retirement planning intentions in the context of a developing country, focusing on financial...

Numerous researchers acknowledge that the occupational pension protects employees. However, in China, the total cost of occupational pensions is shared between employees and employers, representing a significant financial commitment. This study aimed to explore the effect of the occupational...

This report takes a fresh look at the prospects for the future of retirement incomes for employees in the UK. Since the Pensions Commission reported around 20 years ago, much has changed in the economic and pensions policy environment. While the introduction of automatic enrolment has been in...

This report discusses how public policy should change to bring about better outcomes in retirement for employees through their accumulation of private pension wealth. In doing so, we draw on new modelling undertaken as part of the Pensions Review (O'Brien, Sturrock and Cribb, 2024) as well as...

There have been widespread concerns about the patterns of retirement saving amongst self-employed workers, who now make up just over one in eight of the whole labour force. Most strikingly, the fraction of self-employed workers earning over £10,000 who are making contributions to a private...

This study draws upon the behavioral agency model and the concept of socioemotional wealth to investigate how family firms’ employee pension underfunding decisions differ from those of non-family firms. We explore how these differences are influenced by financial distress, generational stage,...

This paper analyses the forms and prevalence of external implementation channels of occupational pension provision after the introduction of the 2018 Occupational Pension Strengthening Act (OSPA) in Germany and their determinants. First, the most important pension reforms of the German old-age...

How should pensions be taxed? We propose income tax and National Insurance reforms that would more evenly support pension saving. Pensions are the biggest component of household wealth and are treated favourably by the tax system. That means getting pensions tax design right matters. It matters...

This paper investigates retirees' optimal purchases of fixed and variable longevity income annuities using their defined contribution (DC) plan assets and given their expected Social Security benefits. As an alternative, we also evaluate using plan assets to boost Social Security benefits...

In the United States, many employees can save for retirement by participating in Defined Contribution Plans (DCPs). We propose a tractable framework for calculating the employee’s subjective value of the participation option. The framework allows us to separate multiple benefits of...

In the United States, many employees can save for retirement by participating in Defined Contribution Plans (DCPs). We propose a tractable framework for calculating the employee’s subjective value of the participation option. The framework allows us to separate multiple benefits of...

American households increasingly rely on employer-sponsored defined contribution retirement plans to fund consumption in retirement. I show that an important factor that impacts these plans is litigation risk. Using a new database of over 35,000 plans covering more than $5 trillion in assets, I...

This paper studies the saving response of households to shocks in the capital position of their pension fund. Using survey panel data matched to supervisory data of Dutch occupational pension funds for a period that involved three major economic crises, we provide evidence of an increase in...