This paper examines how policy uncertainty influences retirement decisions. We develop a simple model in which individuals face a one-time choice between immediate retirement and continued employment until the statutory retirement age. In the absence of policy uncertainty, retirement decisions...

Despite automatic enrolment in work pension schemes, private saving for pensions in the UK is relatively low, with most people under-pensioned in later life and reliant on the state pension. In this book, Hayley James shows that equally significant is that women save far less for old age than...

The literature on growth dependencies increasingly calls for post-growth welfare states capable of functioning without reliance on GDP growth in order to remain within planetary limits. Yet empirical research on the relationship between welfare state arrangements and economic growth remains...

The Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP) is a strategic initiative of the European Union (EU) aimed at creating a harmonized, portable pension savings framework that addresses the challenges of population aging, increased labor mobility, and the widening pension gap across Member States....

With the 2021 introduction of Germany's basic pension, longterm insured persons with low incomes can receive a supplement to their statutory pension. In 2024, around 1.4 million recipients received an average pension increase of 100 euros as a result. Data from the German Pension Insurance show...

The question of whether affluent households save at a higher rate than other parts of the distribution has been asked by economists on numerous occasions since the 1950s. It is standard in this research to define affluent, or "rich," households as those with high lifetime earnings or income to...

The rapid expansion of social pensions in emerging economies over recent decades has been one of the defining features of global social assistance policy. This paper aims to assess the case for a significant expansion of social pension coverage in Malaysia in light of global and Malaysian...

This paper aims to assess the case for a significant expansion of social pension coverage in Malaysia in light of global and Malaysian experience. It first defines social pensions and their diverse objectives. It then looks at global patterns of social pension coverage, adequacy, and spending,...

The European Union population is ageing increasingly rapidly, with dependency ratios and shares of the elderly in the total population rising across the continent. While aggregate projected increases in age-related public spending in the EU are manageable, there are substantial differences...

To facilitate transnational mobility of persons of all ages, well-designed transnational social security rights are a prerequisite. For instance, EU citizens would be reluctant to move from one Member State to another if they were to lose their pension rights already acquired or if the pension...

This paper uses a multidimensional framework that incorporates constraints of accessibility, affordability, and acceptability to examine the determinants of effective access to the contributory component of Bolivia's pension system. Using nationally representative household surveys from 2005 and...

The paper analyzes Liechtenstein's three-pillar pension system, assessing its structure, funding mechanisms, sustainability and adequacy challenges. Liechtenstein's pension system operates on a three-pillar framework comprising public pensions (AHV-IV-FAK), mandatory occupational schemes, and...

The prevalence and determinants of intimate partner violence (IPV) among older women are severely understudied. This paper documents that the incidence of IPV remains high at old ages and provides the first evidence of the impact of access to income on IPV for older women. We leverage a Mexican...

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the pension systems in Brazil and Canada, focusing on their historical evolution, structural frameworks, and the demographic and fiscal challenges they face. By examining the development of these systems, the study highlights the unsustainable...

This paper investigates the welfare effects of two types of pension reforms aimed at addressing challenges due to aging populations. The study uses a framework by Kolsrud et al. (2024), decomposing welfare into consumption smoothing and fiscal externality effects. Norwegian administrative data...

We study how public pensions impact lifecycle labor supply decisions. Our analysis centers on pension eligibility rules in Ecuador. We first use administrative data to document and unpack retirement spikes at eligibility ages. Next, we use survey data and regression discontinuity to investigate...