Interview with Courtney Coile (NBER International Social Security Project) Researchers from twelve developed countries around the world have been working together in the NBER International Social Security Project for 25 years. Across all these countries, the researchers found that the way in which the pension system is set up largely determines the choices people make with regard to working longer. “The effect is surprisingly…

The global investment management company BlackRock joined the Netspar network on January 1, 2020. The asset manager will be financially supporting Netspar’s Action Plan for the next three years and actively contributing to the research agenda through research and sharing knowledge. Monique Donders – Head of BlackRock Netherlands: “Given the discussion about the Dutch pension system and criticism that is being given to the…

Netspar congratulates the winners of the Netspar thesis awards 2020: Lieke Kools, Bas Temme, Aldert Boonen, Rob Custers, Patrick van der Kleij and Bart Kuijpers. The prizes of € 3.000 each handed out by Fieke van der Lecq (chairman of the Editorial Board) were awarded during the annual International Pension Workshop to outstanding master, phd and Tias theses within the Netspar research program. All…

Motivating pension plan participants to delve into their pensions and take action in a time-ly manner is a challenge for many pension funds and financial service providers. Referen-cing social norms can be a very effective way of stimulating the desired behavior. This can be done quite subtly and with very little investment: a particular word or image in a letter or chart can do…

The Netspar Foundation Board has appointed two new members to the Supervisory Board: Bianca Tetteroo and Wouter Bos. Wouter Bos will act as chairman. With these appointments, the Netspar research network is strengthening its position as an honest broker for knowledge about pensions and aging. The Supervisory Board also consists of Guusje Dolsma, Tuur Elzinga, Lex Meijdam and Gerard van Olphen. Casper van Ewijk…

DNB, ECB, and the Dutch government have sharpened their focus on problematic debt in households. This Netspar Brief evaluates that phenomenon from an economic perspective and examines these debt problems in relation to the parameters established by regulators in the financial industry. The emphasis is on the affordability of mortgage debt after retirement. After retirement, households experience a drop in income. Older people with an…

Now that people must continue working until they are older, employers are concerned about the ability of their employees to remain physically and mentally fit. This is particularly true for employers in construction and manufacturing, as cited in this 2017 study. These concerns help explain why only 21% of employers want to see the statutory retirement age rise in conjunction with life expectancy. Policy…

People are increasingly confronted with individual choices regarding the financing of their pensions. This requires complex risk and return decisions on various investment products. The chance of making wrong choices can be reduced by offering multiple investment products integrated in an interactive tool. Especially when multiple risky products are offered integrated, people benefit from this: they often choose a mix that fits well with…

During the annual Pension Day on October 31, 26 researchers affiliated with Netspar presented new insights from a large number of research projects that have an impact on pension policy. Scientists from different research disciplines were given the opportunity to exchange knowledge, discuss papers and collect feedback on current research. Topics varied from saving behavior to ‘augmented’ pension communication using Artificial Intelligence, and from…

How do people decide what they spend and what they save after retirement? This study among non-retired people aged 50 to 65 shows that most people make choices and have savings motives that hardly deviate from rational behavior. However, there are major differences between respondents. A substantial minority runs the risk of making choices that are bad for their prosperity in old age. Individual…