Aging Equally? Employing Active Aging Policy in the United Kingdom

The UK’s responses to the challenges of ageing have largely focused on productivist notions of active ageing, with more comprehensive responses tending to be reactive and largely remedial. This presentation will show that productivist policies, often characterised by individual responsibility, including raising the retirement age, restricting access to early retirement, and providing a stronger link between pension benefits and contributions, have incentivised remaining in the labour market. These strategies have been justified in the context of ageing populations and increasing pension costs. However, opportunities to extend working lives have not been experienced equally. In practice most policies are gender blind. Furthermore, a more comprehensive approach to active ageing in the UK needs a collective emphasis to mobilise a wide range of societal resources, underpinned by a commitment to public welfare, which is highly problematic under neo-liberalism. Therefore, a comprehensive approach to ageing in the UK requires a substantial ideological shift.

Analysis of Mortality Improvement on the Pension Cost Due to Aging Population

Aging is a good indicator in demographic and health areas as the lifespanof the elderly population increases. Based on the government’s Economic Outlook 2019,it was found that an aging population would increase the government pension paymentsas the pensioners and their beneficiaries have longer life expectancy. Due to mortalityrates decreasing over time, the life expectancy tends to increase in the future. Theaims of this study are to forecast the mortality rates in the years 2020 and 2025 usingthe Heligman-Pollard model and then analyse the effect of mortality improvement onthe pension cost (annuity factor) for the Malaysian population. However, this studyonly focuses on estimating the annuity factor using life annuities through the forecastedmortality rates. The findings indicated that the pension cost is expected to increase ifthe life expectancy of the Malaysian population increases due to the aging population inthe near future. Thus, to reduce pension costs and help the pensioners from insufficientfinancial income, the government needs to consider an extension of the retirement age infuture.

The role of discretionary pension accruals in earnings management

PurposeManagers of defined-benefit (DB) firms have considerable discretion in deriving pension costs and flexibility in cash contributions to pension plans. Pension accruals occur when cash contributions differ from pension costs. The manipulable nature of pension costs and cash contributions allows managers of DB firms to manipulate pension accruals to achieve their desired earnings. We study whether DB firms with earnings management attributes (referred to as suspect DB firms) used more discretionary pension accruals (DPA) than non-suspect DB firms, especially after the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX).Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop an aggregate measure of DPA to capture overall earnings management in pension accounting. They then employ a multivariate regression model to study whether the suspect DB firms engage in more DPA than non-suspect firms and to assess the impact of SOX on DPA for all DB firms and for suspect DB firms.FindingsThe authors find evidence that suspect firms inflate DPA to achieve their earnings goals and also that all DB firms and the suspect firms use more DPA in the post-SOX era compared to the pre-SOX period. In contrast, they observe no significant difference in real activities earnings management (REM) between suspect and non-suspect firms. In addition, neither the entire sample of DB firms nor the suspect firms display a significant change in REM after SOX.Research limitations/implicationsThe samples in the study are limited to firms with defined pension plans; thus, the findings cannot be generalized to all firms. In addition, as in other empirical studies relying on models to estimate earnings management proxies, this study inherits estimation errors from Jones and Roychowdhury's models. Consequently, the impact of these estimation errors cannot be ruled out.Practical implicationsThe empirical findings of the study appear that instead of deterring DB firms from engaging in pension accruals earnings management, enacting the stringent anti-fraud SOX prompts these firms to rely more on accrual-based discretionary pension rather than switch to real activities manipulation to manage earnings.Originality/valueWhile many prior studies focus on the impact of managing individual pension assumptions on earnings, the authors study overall earnings management in pension accounting by developing a model to derive an aggregate measure of pension earnings management.

Comparison of Old-age Pension Policy in China and Russia: the Common and the Specific

In the process of transforming from planned economy to market economy, both China and Russia faced the issue of pension reform. There are similarities in the reform and development process and the system model of the pension security system in China and Russia. Transition from planned economy to market economy and aggravation of population aging are main reasons for the reform of pension system in both countries. Under the influence of the World Bank and other international organizations, China and Russia have gradually established a multi-tier pension system, with the state, enterprises and individuals sharing the pension costs. Differences also exist in the old-age security system of China and Russia.

A $19-Billion Blind Spot: State Pension Spending

In this brief, we examine an important but obscure form of state spending on K–12 education—state subsidies of school district pension costs. In 2018, this exceeded $19 billion across 23 states. To put that amount into perspective, 2018 federal spending on Title I programs was $15.8 billion. This revenue stream is often ignored in analyses of state aid for K–12 and its distribution across districts. Until recently, accounting standards did not require pension plans to report these implicit subsidies to the school districts, so they did not typically know the size of their subsidy. In some important cases, it was missing from state totals for education aid. In the first comprehensive tabulation of these data, we show that this subsidy can be as much as $2,400 per pupil, as it is in Connecticut. In Illinois, it comprises an additional 56% of state spending on K–12 on top of all formula and categorical aid.

The trade-off between pension costs and salary expenditures in the public sector

We examine pension-cost crowd out of salary expenditures in the public sector using a 15-year data panel of state teacher pension plans spanning the Great Recession. While there is no evidence of salary crowd out prior to the Great Recession, there is a shift in the post-recession years such that a 1% (of salaries) increase in the annual required pension contribution corresponds to a decrease in total teacher salary expenditures of 0.24%. The effect operates through changes to the size of the teaching workforce, not changes to teacher wages. An explanation for the effect heterogeneity pre- and post-recession is that public employers are less able to shield the workforce from pension costs during times of fiscal stress. This problem is exacerbated because unlike other benefit costs, such as for health care, pension costs are countercyclical.

Sustainability of the Pension System, Risks and Opportunities

All other things being equal by 2060 out of 10 of the working age population 6 pensioners will be accounted for. This does constitute a risk for the sustainability of pensions. Our study has analysed the most recent data on demographics, economy, employment, and its underlying factors, as well as the expected development of the figures of the pension fund. Our findings point to that the shrinking of the population of women of childbearing age will result in a constant decrease of birth rates even by a modest increase in fertility rates. Therefore, family policy measures - being indispensable - are of their own insufficient to mitigate the economic and pension risks. Due to its conjunctural nature economic growth can only temporarily mitigate the risks. On the other hand, the extension of the labour market activity of elderly people can set back the increase in pension costs with well predictable efficiency. Means to this end can include promoting activity at old ages, raising retirement ages, preserving physical and mental well-being and employability, as well as spreading the culture of self-reliance.

Cross-Subsidization of Teacher Pension Costs: The Case of California

The value of pension benefits varies widely, by a teacher's age of entry and exit. This variation is masked by the uniform rate of annual contributions, as a percent of pay, to fund benefits for all. For the first time, we unmask that variation by calculating annual costs at the individual level. In California, we find that the value of a teacher's benefits ranges from about 4 to 22 percent of pay, and exhibits some idiosyncratic patterns, as is endemic to traditional pension plans. The variation in individual cost rates generates an extensive but hidden array of cross-subsidies, as winners receive benefits worth more than the uniform contribution rate, and losers receive less. Almost two thirds of all entering teachers, past and present, are losers in California. By contrast, a prominently invoked study finds that nearly all active teachers are winners there. That result is shown to be highly skewed by excluding the losses of prior entrants who left early, thereby violating the funding fact that the gains and losses of winners and losers must offset each other. Our main policy conclusion is that cash balance plans can rationalize or eliminate the current system of cross-subsidies and provide the transparency lacking in traditional plans.

Retirement choices by state and local public sector employees: the role of eligibility and financial incentives

I analyze the effects of state public pension parameters on the retirement of public employees. Using a panel data set of public sector workers from 12 waves of the Health and Retirement Study, I model the probability of retirement as a function of pension wealth at early and normal retirement eligibility and Social Security coverage in the public sector job. I find that becoming eligible for early retirement, or receiving an early-out offer, significantly increases the probability of retiring. I do not find any effect of retirement wealth levels. These findings suggest that state legislative action to affect retirement decisions and reduce future pension costs would be most effective operating through plan eligibility rules and early-out incentives.