Projects (115)

Widowhood is a critical life course event that entails not only profound grief, but also severe social and economic consequences. For instance, spousal loss can significantly reduce household income, while expenses remain unchanged.1–3 Such a rapid drop in purchasing power, together with other psychological and social challenges, puts widows and widowers at a high risk of poverty and exclusion. Moreover, these risks are strongly…

We often imagine retirement as a voluntary withdrawal from the labor market to enjoy the later stage of life. The reality for most people, however, is different. Many retirees exit the workforce not because they want to, but because they are forced to1. When forced to retire, people are not well-prepared for post-retirement life and may, therefore, face psychological, social, and financial problems. This…

In December 2022, the House of Representatives of The Netherlands voted in favor of a major redesign of the funded pillar of the Dutch pension system. This new pension law is the culmination of (at least) 12 years of negotiations between social partners, the government, and parliament. The Netherlands is not the only country which is in the process of implementing a major redesign…

Depending on the definition and whether or not the self-employed are included, approximately 10% to 25% of the working population does not accrue a pension in the second pillar. In addition, the second pillar has many meager schemes with an inadequate structure, the so-called ‘grey spot’. The lack of pension in the second pillar is only – very – partly compensated by additional accrual…

In the new Dutch pension agreement, pension funds and insurance companies have to elicit the risk preferences and risk capacity of their participants and to adjust (collective) investment strategies accordingly. Risk preferences can be quite different: Some might prefer to increase the chance of indexation while others prefer to avoid a cut in pensions at all cost. This variety in risk preferences can be modelled by…

The new pension system entails uncertainty for participants. During the accrual of the pension, the amount of the expected benefit will fluctuate as a result of economic developments. Uncertainty often leads to negative emotions and avoiding making choices (Han, 2013). In the case of pensions, this can lead to unnecessary unrest, but also to the postponement of steps to arrange for a desirable supplement….

Within the improved contribution scheme, participants can choose between a fixed or variable payment before the retirement date. Pension funds use standard models and a prescribed calculation method for this purpose. Participants see the expected pension, pension ‘in good’ and ‘in bad’ weather. However, this does not provide participants with insight into the year-on-year volatility of benefits. By means of experience sampling, in which…

The aim of this research is to aggregate and analyze data from various RPSs (risk preference surveys) in the pension sector in order to learn faster. How big are the differences between methods, between target groups, and between periods in which RPSs have been carried out? In other words, what can we say about and learn from the heterogeneity? A guideline for the methodologies…

The Future Pensions Act (Wtp) states that pension providers must invest on the basis of the risk attitude of the participants. A great deal of attention is therefore paid to eliciting risk preferences. A concern when eliciting risk preferences is whether a method actually delivers the true ‘gamma’ that is modeled for risk aversion. As a result, the estimated parameters from the risk preference…

We analyze the role of employers in establishing suitable labor market conditions to maintain the productivity of workers. We focus on two groups: Disabled and older people. We analyze the employer responsibility to accommodate workers with partial disabilities, and to accommodate older workers in flexible work arrangements until the statutory retirement age or beyond. In the first part of the project, we analyze the…