Projects (83)

The objective of this project is to compare how individuals make portfolio decisions in a low interest rate environment in the Netherlands and Norway. The units of analysis are individuals in the respective countries. We use two administrative datasets, which cover the complete population from 2005-2018 for the Netherlands, and from 1993-2017 for Norway. During this period, both countries experienced large fluctuations in short-term…

In response to population ageing and steady increases in life expectancy, governments in many developed countries are raising eligibility ages for retirement pensions. By doing so, they aim to reduce national pension expenditures and encourage older workers to delay retirement. While the literature shows that these policies generally have the desired effects (OECD 2012, Atav et al. 2019, Lindeboom and Montizaan forth.), there are…

Today, pension systems must deal with two open problems: their financial sustainability while facing both worldwide population aging and diffuse public finance distress; and their relationship with within- and between-generation rising inequality. These concerns are calling for structural reforms in many countries. We propose a new theoretical model to study the trade-offs entailed by all the possible combinations of retirement schemes (funded vs. unfunded…

In the recent Netspar Brief / CPB Policy Brief ‘Low interest and the future of pensions’ (2020), the NDC pension (‘Non-Financial Defined Contribution’) is discussed as an alternative to – part of – the current second pillar of supplementary pensions . The NDC pension offers a supplementary pension, but on a pay-as-you-go basis within the first pillar. It includes all workers (including the self-employed)…

The goal of this project is to better understand inequality in old age, which might be increasing as a result of the policies to promote longer working lives. To reach this goal, the project will examine how and to what extent inequality in work, family and health trajectories over the pre-retirement life course influences inequality in retirement transitions and inequality in post-retirement economic, social…

In the new pension system, the importance of good choice guidance for participants by pension funds and administrators will increase. One is also faced with the difficult task of informing participants on the possibility that the pension benefits might be higher or lower. The prediction of the amount of the benefits and the margin of uncertainty, are often communicated visually. Such visualizations can be…

People’s willingness to take risks affects a range of decisions, many of them relevant for (pension) saving and investing. Financial institutions therefore have a special interest in the risk attitudes of their clients and even a legal obligation to measure clients’ risk attitudes and to take these into account. With the recent pension agreement, pension funds are also prompted to consider the risk attitudes…

In the past decade, we have witnessed a remarkable rise in sustainable or “Environmental, Social, and Governance” (ESG) investing, especially among institutional investors such as pension funds and insurance companies. Whether sustainable investing affects the risk and return of these institutional investors is an important question. Both in the financial industry and in academic research, a popular viewpoint embraces the idea of “doing well…

Trust is a key asset for pension providers as the products and services they provide involve the act of people parting with their money in exchange for promises that cover a lifetime. Uncovering trust in pension institutions comes at a crucial point in time as the Dutch pension system is in a state of flux. The government has initiated fundamental reforms in response to…

Individuals in the developed economies worldwide increasingly are confronted with an uncertain outlook towards retirement. Consequently, individuals are faced with a greater responsibility in organizing their own pension arrangements. Pension fund managers also face new challenges as their risk-returns decisions for pension investments translate more directly in differences in pension incomes for pension fund participants. In this project, we address three important aspects related…