Projects (129)

After the financial crisis, financial supervisors, such as the ECB and DNB, adopted several measures in order to enhance financial stability and economic recovery. Their primary aim was to prevent financial threats that lead to economic instability, but repercussions in the pension domain are very likely and need research. Pension funds, insurance companies and banks have been subject to targeted policies, the so called…

Recently, the EU delivered an action plan on financing sustainable growth in which “Sustainable Finance” is a key policy pillar. Several of the actions are directly related to the duties of institutional investors. Institutional investors need to integrate the preferences of their participants for sustainable investments into contractual arrangements. The action plan further explicitly demands policies on incorporating sustainability in investment advice. How can…

This project analyzes work incentives and restrictions of older individuals and individuals with a work disability and investigates how they affect participation in and hours of paid work. Retirement reforms introduce tax credits, make deferring pension claims actuarially attractive, and increase the legal retirement age to stimulate labour market participation among older workers. In addition, provision of part-time work opportunities may also stimulate the…

In this topicality project we are interested in the labor market effects of progressive pension premiums and decreasing pension accumulation rates, as an alternative for the Dutch system of age independent premiums and accumulation rates. We aim at gaining insight in how these will change wage costs, demand, and supply of older and younger workers. This implies that we need to know labor supply…

This project investigates the effectiveness of decision aids in pension communication for participants of a pension scheme. Pension Decision Aids (PDAs) are interactive online tools that through a sequence of questions and information guide participants towards making informed pension decisions. PDAs (1) explicitly state the decision that needs to be considered; (2) provide information about the options, associated benefits, risks, probabilities and uncertainties; (3)…

Public pension programs play a critical role in both retirement security and retirement decisions, creating financial incentives that may encourage or discourage work at older ages. Over the past several decades, many countries have enacted social security reforms in response to fiscal pressures. During the same period, virtually all developed economies have experienced rising male and female labor force participation rates at older ages….

The life-cycle model (Modigliani, 1960) predicts that people accumulate assets for consumption smoothing and thus to compensate possible income drops, especially upon retirement. This includes also housing that, as any other asset, can possibly be decumulated (or downsized) later in the life-cycle. Unanticipated wealth shocks (including shocks to housing wealth) should lead to a modification of the individuals’ consumption-saving path. There are factors that…

The retirement age is tied to life expectancy in the Netherlands. A higher retirement age implies a larger share of elderly people in the labor force and more people claiming disability benefits, regardless of how much the life expectancy increases. Furthermore, since the duration of the disability benefit lasts until the statutory retirement age, a higher statutory retirement age means more time spent in…

Since 2016, it has been possible to continue to invest in the payment phase of (improved) premium schemes. The variable benefit offers a higher (starting) benefit, but with more uncertainty. Does this meet the participant’s need on retirement date and how is the variability of the benefit perceived? What are the issues that are important for a participant in retirement? And on the basis…

Since 2016, it has been possible to continue to invest in the payment phase of (improved) premium schemes. The variable benefit offers a higher (starting) benefit, but with more uncertainty. In the event of a collective allocation in a personal pension (Shell variant; current SER discussion), the annual income adjustments are the same for all participants. An alternative is to offer participants from a…