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Financial unsustainability of pension systems in developed economies looms large on the horizon due to increasing life expectancy and continuous drop in fertility. In spite of a broad discussion, there has been but a little consensus on appropriate remedy. Besides, the theoretical arguments supporting funded pension systems often build upon the unrealistic assumption of stable financial markets and fair transformation of saved funds into retirement benefits. This work provides an insight into performance of various pension systems in real- world conditions using large-scale simulations of an overlapping generations model based on existing pension schemes in the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Chile. Specifically, my model assumes adverse demographics, individual un- certainty, volatile financial markets' returns, and administrative costs to affect social security systems and estimates magnitude of the effects. According to the results, each pension system seems to be partially advantageous - in pro- motion of economic growth, level of retirement benefits, or protection against market risks - but no scheme is dominant or dominated overall. JEL Classification E27, C68, H55 Keywords pension, OLG, simulation Author's e-mail Stepanek.Martin@hotmail.com Supervisor's e-mail Jaromir.Baxa@centrum.cz

Financial researchers agree that allocating money to employer stock in a 401(k) plan is a poor strategy, yet many employees do so. Not only does this investment strategy bear unrewarded idiosyncratic risk, but it also correlates employees' retirement portfolios with their human capital. I find evidence that this selection is influenced by the investment preferences of peers, which includes both management at the firm and employees at other firms headquartered in the same city. Specifically, the percentage allocated to company stock by employees in the 401(k) plan is positively related to both the net open-market purchases of company stock by management and the average allocation to company stock in 401(k) plans by employees at other firms headquartered in the same city. Surprisingly, the allocation to company stock in 401(k) plans increases with investment in employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), which are a dominant substitute since they often offer stock at a discount. To identify the cause of this relationship between employees and management, I provide additional support for the peer effects hypothesis through interaction tests. The relationship between employees and management is influenced by distance between peers and trust within the firm - two factors that alter group cohesion and, in turn, the effect of peer influence. These results are robust to size of the firm and also exist for the subsample of firms that have only made matching contributions in cash. Consistent with our understanding of the inertia that exists in employee investment decisions, employee allocations to company stock are influenced for many years by management's initial investment choices made near the time of going public. Lastly, alternative methodologies, including propensity score matched samples and panel regressions, yield the same conclusions.

This thesis deals with the comparison of funded pension schemes in United Kingdom and in Slovakia. The aim of the thesis is the classification of pension systems and consequently the characteristic of pension system's structure in United Kingdom and in Slovakia. The thesis also has for the other goal to carry out the comparison of funded pension schemes of both countries in terms of the most significant factors which influence finances invested in pension funds. The Thesis consists of four sections. The first chapter is devoted to the characteristics of construction of basic pension system types, the way of their funding, types of pension plans and structure of three tier pension system. The second and the third chapter is focused on pension systems of United Kingdom and Slovakia, demographic changes in both countries, previous and present forms of the system, changes and intended reforms. The fourth chapter comprises of the comparison of the investment portfolio structure, rate of return, costs and charges of pension funds.

Legal regulation of pension companies and pension funds The Master's thesis concentrates on the main issues of the legal regulation of pension companies, the designated providers of pension savings and supplementary pension savings in the Czech Republic. The thesis evaluates the reform of the pension schemes constituted by Act No. 426/2011 Coll., on Pension Savings, Act No. 427/2011 Coll., on Supplementary Pension Savings, and Act No. 428/2011 Coll., amending Certain Acts in Connection with the Adoption of the Act on Pension Savings and the Act on Supplementary Pension Savings. The thesis is divided into nine chapters. Chapter 1 is an introductory part defining the purpose of the thesis. Chapter 2 describes the pension savings regulation in the Czech Republic prior to the reform's effective date (i.e., 1 January 2013). Chapter 3 describes the pension reform and its justification. Chapter 4 concentrates on the pension companies as the managers of pension funds and supplementary pension funds. The regulation of pension funds is described in Chapter 5 while the regulation of supplementary pension funds is described in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 deals with the regulation of the (supplementary) pension funds' distribution. Chapter 8 suggests certain modifications of the reform package and discusses possible...

The diploma thesis examines the implicit pension debt in the fifteen EU countries. The Holzmann et al. (2011) methodology is applied to show the impact of population ageing on the pension systems in the EU. The implicit pension debts demonstrate the considerable hidden debt burden in the all fifteen countries. The implicit pension debts range in the interval from 47 % of GDP for the Czech Republic to 906 % for Greece. Nine of the analyzed countries record the implicit pension debts in the interval 100 - 300 % of GDP. The sensitivity analysis and the comparison with other studies confirm our findings. The thesis points out sizeable imbalances among the particular countries, genders and age cohorts.

MA (Labour Policies and Globalisation), Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / South African pension fund assets are estimated at ZAR 1 924 billion. This is a large pool of funds that is collected from workers. However, the contention is that workers, whose savings make up the assets of pension funds have little influence on how these funds are used. As a result, most of the funds are invested in corporations, which do not reflect the aspirations of the labour movement. The argument is that if these funds were under the control and direction of the working class, enormous contributions would be made towards economic growth, socially useful investments, community development, employment creation and growth in retirement benefits. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which trade unions have been able to promote the interest of members and direct pension fund investment in sectors that will have a positive impact on working families and their communities in South Africa. This study adopted a qualitative method, using purposive sampling and a semi-structured outline to conduct face-to-face interviews with union unions and fund managers. Collected data were analyzed using content analysis. Results were categorized into two distinct parts. The first part looked at pension fund investment regulation and management, asset allocation, investment practices and composition of the pension board. The second part described trade unions’ role in promoting the interest of pension fund members; the extent of their influence in pension fund investments; their contribution to strengthening pension fund governance and how to enhance their influence and control of pension fund investments. The study suggests that trade unions have a critical role to play in pension fund management through their representation on the pension boards. However, the success can only be achieved if trade unions have a clear policy that spells out labour’s agenda on pension issues. Additionally, union trustees should be supported to getting involved in understanding their plans and develop capacities in capital market strategies, investment and economic development.

The dissertation investigates support by economists for the global policy shift away from unfunded public pension schemes towards funded private pension schemes. Influential economists and institutions, including the World Bank, present a suite of economic arguments that suggest that this shift will have positive effects on national economies, particularly in the context of aging. The arguments may be categorised according to their relation to the operation of three sets of institutions: capital markets, labour markets and political systems. In capital markets, the transition is purported to increase private and national saving, increase the quantity and quality of investment, and provide more efficient private administration. In labour markets, it is claimed that the shift will reduce labour market distortions associated with public pensions, which inhibit competitiveness, produce unemployment and encourage early retirement. According to the World Bank, public pensions systems cause these distortions without achieving their stated objective of reducing inequality. In the political sphere, the shift is purported to insulate the pension system from political pressures, which otherwise inevitably lead to crisis. The thesis provides evidence which refutes these claims. The best research, including studies by orthodox economists, indicate that the shift does not increase savings or investment, or improve the quality of financial investment. The main effect of tax concessions associated with private pension systems is to divert to private pension funds savings that would occur in any case via other mechanisms. The tax concessions are also regressive, even in systems with compulsory elements. Private administration of pensions, particularly in a plural consumer market setting, is highly inefficient, with customers at a disadvantage in dealing with providers due to the complexity and opacity of products and pricing. A negative relationship is found between public pension spending and levels of elderly poverty, suggesting that reducing public pension spending increases levels of elderly inequality. Public pensions are found not to explain differences in economic growth between regions. Elements of system design which distort labour markets, such as by encouraging early retirement, can easily be adjusted. However, such elements are explicit government policy in several countries. A review of public and private pensions finds that examples of public system crisis are associated with instances of economic and political collapse, rather than system design. Private funded systems are found to be more vulnerable, not less, to the same external influences. Relatively generous universal public pension systems are found to be financially sustainable despite demographic change, assuming modest levels of economic growth.

Då medellivslängden bland Sveriges befolkning ökar stadigt samt att vi idag är friskare och piggare i högre ålder har frågan om pensionsåldern åter gjorts aktuell. Mot denna bakgrund har regeringen tillsatt en utredningsgrupp för att analysera för- och nackdelar samt konsekvenserna av ett längre arbetsliv. Då detta väckte många negativa reaktioner i media fångades vårt intresse för frågan, särskilt då den genomsnittliga pensionsåldern idag ligger på ca 63 år bland människor som anses fysiskt och psykiskt friska att arbeta fram till 65 års ålder. Syftet är att undersöka om och i så fall hur äldre människor kan motiveras att stanna kvar längre i arbetslivet samt om det finns ett behov av motivationsteorier för äldre människor. Denna kunskap ska förhoppningsvis sedan kunna användas av arbetsgivare som är intresserade av att behålla sina äldre anställda samt bidra till vidare forskning runt åldersbaserad motivationsteori. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie med induktiv ansats. Forskningen har bedrivits med tvärsnittsdesign och empiri har huvudsakligen samlats in med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer. Det vi kom fram till i denna uppsats var att äldre människor, under rätt förutsättningar, kan motiveras att stanna kvar längre i arbetslivet. Den faktor vi fann mest avgörande var att det är av vikt att personen själv väljer att fortsätta arbeta och att det därmed inte sker under någon form av tvång. Ytterligare faktorer som är avgörande för att motivera äldre människor att fortsätta arbeta är att de får möjlighet att gå ner i arbetstid om de önskar detta samt att de gärna fortsätter arbeta för den sociala interaktionens skull.

This study examines the effect of pensions on the timing of retirement, focusing on the differences between defined benefit (DB) plans and defined contribution (DC) plans. I find that DC plans have different effects on the accumulation of retirement wealth, the incentives for retirement and the risk of retirement benefits than DB plans. Thereby, DC plans have different effects from DB plans on the decision to retire. This paper is the first empirical study to investigate the effect of longevity risk in pension plans on retirement. It is an important addition to the literature on retirement behavior since longevity risk will become more important as individuals have longer life expectancies and bear more longevity risk due to increasing likelihood of coverage by DC plans or Social Security personal accounts. Previous research has found that DB plans have an age-incentive effect on retirement. That is, the structure of DB plans may induce individuals to retire at a specific age. By contrast, the structure of DC plans does not have age-incentive effects. Thereby, individuals with DC plans may retire either earlier or later on average than individuals with DB plans because of the absence of age-related incentives in DC plans. To shed further light on these issues, this study introduces risk factors, and particularly longevity risk, to an option value model of the retirement decision. Longevity risk is important to DC participants since DC plans usually offer a lump-sum benefit at retirement. Since payouts are not guaranteed over life expectancy, retirees with DC plans bear a greater risk of outliving their resources, i.e., longevity risk. The additional risks in DC plans may make workers save more, and retire later. This paper extends a standard intertemporal model of consumption and retirement by incorporating risk factors for different pension types into the retirement decision problem. Comparative statics from the optimal solution show that increases in risk factors (i.e. longevity risk) during retirement induce workers with DC plans to retire later than workers with defined benefit (DB) plans. This study then test the predictions of this model empirically, using the data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Empirical results confirm the predictions of the theoretical model. First, workers with DC plans expect to retire later than workers with DB plans. Next, increase in pension option value, measured as the difference between the maximum pension value and the pension value of 1992, decreases the probability of retirement, thereby increasing the expected retirement wage. By contrast, greater pension wealth increases the probability of retirement, reducing the expected retirement age. Considering that pension wealth in DC plans is about half of pension wealth in DB plans, it is reasonable to conclude that workers with DC plans retire later than workers with DB plans. Finally, longevity risk, as measured by the Annuity Equivalent Wealth (AEW), decreases probability of retirement, increasing the expected retirement age.