Projects (91)

Prior research shows significant variation in risk attitudes, partly reflecting actual differences, partly to be interpreted as uncertainty about true individual attitudes. Individuals also differ widely in their human and financial capital, and past employment histories, both affecting their risk capacity. Our aim is to study the implications of heterogeneity in risk preferences and risk capacity for pension investments. We study the possibilities of…

Under the new pension agreement, pension providers must assess appropriate levels of investment risk for different age groups, depending on their ability to bear risks (risk capacity) in addition to risk preferences. Standard lifecycle investment profiles, where risk reduces as individuals grow older, assume a constant labor income. These profiles do not consider substantial differences in labor market uncertainty at different parts of the…

Nearly 30% of Dutch households are at risk of having insufficient financial resources after retirement (Knoef, Been et al. 2016) and 40% of 35-55 year-olds have no idea of their financial situation after retirement (Nibud 2019). Research by the AFM revealed that pension providers do not always properly guide participants in their choices (AFM 2021). Thus, it is important that individuals are well-informed about…

Recent pension reforms, technological innovations as well as the Covid crisis are greatly impacting our society. These ongoing changes have fundamentally changed the demand for skills on the labor market and provide serious threats to the employability of older workers until their retirement and are likely to affect retirement behavior as well as savings behavior. While previous literature on retirement and pension communication has…

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…

Research questions are: – What is the existing division of roles between social partners and fund boards in determining and changing pension schemes? – Are there arguments to adjust this division of roles or to leave it as it is? What has been agreed about this in the development of the pension agreement? – What arguments are there for possible interpretation of the division…

This project will address the following topical questions: What are the arguments for a particular structure of the investment policy in the accrual and distribution phase of a Wvp contract? To what extent would one like to hedge interest rate risk or inflation risk for young people? How can a more realistic orientation of the contract have an effect on the design of a…

This project will deal with the following research questions: What would implementation of the proposals of the Labor Foundation mean for the costs of the surviving dependents’ pension and on what does that depend in particular? How expensive, for example, is the continuation of the cover even after a short employment contract? How can the new contract be filled in to prevent the large…