In choosing a glide path strategy for asset allocation over their working lives, retirement savers face a tradeoff between the higher expected wealth provided by strategies that maintain or increase equity holdings over time, against the greater potential security offered from shifting into more...

Obtaining appropriate forecasts for the future population is a vital component of public policy analysis for issues ranging from government budgets to pension systems. Traditionally, demographic forecasters rely on a deterministic approach with various scenarios informed by expert opinion. This...

This study combines a traditional hypothetical worker approach with the techniques of stochastic forecasting in order to provide a better sense about the suitability of the pension system for formal sector private workers in Thailand. With regard to the proposed defined-contribution pension, we...

Since the 1990s, Vietnam has experienced a dramatic growth in remittance flows. This paper uses the Vietnam Living Standard Surveys for 1992/93 and 1997/98 to study the role of gender in these remittance flows, both from the perspective of receiving and sending remittances. Knowing about gender...

Many countries are currently increasing the advanced funding of their public pension systems to improve their sustainability in the face of rapidly aging populations. When pensions are funded, the issue of asset allocation becomes of paramount importance. Through compound interest, the rate of...

A line of recent studies cast doubt on the efficacy of the lifecycle investment strategy, which calls for switching into a more conservative investment portfolio as retirement approaches, as a suitable way to provide for the retirement needs of workers with defined-contribution pensions. After...

A line of recent studies cast doubt on the efficacy of the lifecycle investment strategy, which calls for switching into a more conservative investment portfolio as retirement approaches, as a suitable way to provide for the retirement needs of workers with defined-contribution pensions. After...

Numerous studies about sustainable withdrawal rates from retirement savings have been published, but they are overwhelmingly based on the same underlying data for US asset returns since 1926. From an international perspective, the United States enjoyed a particularly favorable climate for asset...

Basu and Drew (in the JPM Spring 2009 issue) argue that lifecycle asset allocation strategies are counterproductive to the retirement savings goals of typical individual investors. Because of the portfolio size effect, most portfolio growth will occur in the years just before retirement when...

The Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) of Sri Lanka is a defined-contribution pension fund whose pooled asset holdings consist mainly of local government bonds. Regulations prohibit international diversification, and this paper aims to quantify the extent of the potential harms, if any, caused by...