Projects (125)
Netspar endows several research projects at any given time, ranging from € 10,000 to € 500,000. Below you will find more information about ongoing and completed projects. Researchers can submit proposals within the various calls for short-term and long-term research projects that Netspar expands during the year. For more information, please contact policy advisor Silvie van Halder via 013 – 466 37 93 or via email.
The effectiveness of decision aids in pension communication and the role of literacy
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)…
Social Security and Retirement Around the World: Lessons from a Long-Term Collaboration
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….
Private pension annuities out of savings or housing wealth? A comparative study of Italy and the Netherlands
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…
Consequences of the increase in the retirement age on occupational disability
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…
Target group analysis of variable benefit schemes
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…
Design of the variable benefits and guarantees in personal pension
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…
Simplicity and flexibility with regard to pension savings for the self-employed
There is a substantial group of self-employed people (around 40%) who after retirement are likely to have an income that is lower than 70% of their current income. Compared to employees, self-employed with middle incomes in particular build up relatively little capital for old age. At the same time, we see that this group has relatively much free savings and housing assets. So there seems…
Interaction between determinants of payment speed: high-low, lump sum, fixed decrease and effective date
In the Netherlands, there are numerous options for accelerating the accrual of build-up pension assets. For example, in the second pension pillar there is the possibility to expedite the start date of the pension. It is also possible to increase the payment speed by means of a so-called high-low construction. Furthermore, the Rutte III Cabinet has expressed the intention to investigate whether and how…
Design of compensation in case of system change to a degressive accrual system
This project analyzes the design of compensation in the system change to a degressive accrual system. What are the possible solutions for designing compensation in the case of system changes and the abolition of the uniform contribution system? Is that effect different with DB than with DC schemes? In this paper we identify pitfalls (age discrimination, taxation, transitional periods) and we explore measures to…
Survivor’s Income Position
The aim of this topicality project is to clarify in more detail how large the income-downfall is when a partner dies and in which groups of households the income risk is greatest. To what extent, for example, does a surviving relative with children have a worse prospect than a surviving partner without children? Given this decrease of income, what is an adequate survivor’s pension…
