Description
Book SynopsisThe past few decades have witnessed a global move towards private provision for retirement through individual defined contribution pensions at the expense of publicly provided and employer-sponsored defined benefit pensions. As a consequence, workers and retirees are becoming increasingly exposed to uncertainties in financial, labour and economic markets. The contributors to this book analyse the implications for retirement income policy, workers and retirees in view of the current climate of heightened exposure to scary markets.
The implications of a broad range of scary market scenarios are presented, and novel solutions prescribed. Retirement incomes across a number of countries including the US, the UK, Japan and Australia are explored, and uncertainties examined include:
- extreme stock price volatility;
- discontinuous labour market participation; and
- regulatory failure and macroeconomic instability.
Concluding with the observation that regulatory reforms could be almost as scary as the underlying macroeconomic conditions, this book will prove a fascinating read for scholars, researchers, practitioners and policymakers with an interest in pensions and pension policy, financial economics and public sector economics.
Table of ContentsContents: Preface 1. Introduction Hazel Bateman 2. Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bear? Or, Why Investing in Equities for Retirement is not Scary and Why Investing without Equities is Scary Ronald Bewley, Nick Ingram, Veronica Livera and Sheridan Thompson 3. Assessing the Risks in Global Fixed Interest Portfolios Geoffrey Brianton 4. The Role of Index Funds in Retirement Asset Allocation David R. Gallagher 5. Retirement Wealth and Lifetime Earnings Variability Olivia S. Mitchell, John W.R. Phillips, Andrew Au and David McCarthy 6. How Have Older Workers Responded to Scary Markets? Jonathan Gardner and Mike Orszag 7. Financial Engineering for Australian Annuitants Susan Thorp, Geoffrey Kingston and Hazel Bateman 8. Smoothing Investment Returns Anthony Asher 9. Ansett’s Superannuation Fund: A Case Study in Insolvency Shauna Ferris 10. Pension Funds and Retirement Benefits in a Depressed Economy: Experience and Challenges in Japan Masaharu Usuki 11. The Structure and Regulation of the Brazilian Private Pension System Flávio Marcílio Rabelo Index
