1,721,161 research outputs found
Early-life conditions, lifetime income and mortality risk in Italy
Full text linkIn this study, we obtain insights into the impact of early-life conditions on old-age mortality in Italy. We capture cohorts' life conditions by means of mortality rates at different early-life stages and exploit exogenous variation provided by a series of abrupt mortality events which severely affected specific cohorts. We also test whether lifetime income – approximated by the amount of the pension benefit - is health protective against bad circumstances experienced in early life.
Early-life conditions have a long-lasting effect on males' mortality. Results suggest the existence of a considerable “scarring” effect: the death probability of a male born in 1932 alive at age 65 is 15% lower than that of a male born at the beginning of the XX-th century due to improved early-life conditions. For females, we do not find a significant impact of early-life conditions. We do not find evidence that income is health protective. On the contrary, we find that especially mortality of richer individuals is affected by circumstances in early life
Retirement Choices in Italy:What an Option Value Model Tells Us
Full text link<p>Using Italian data, we estimate an option value model to quantify the effect of financial incentives on retirement choices. As far as we know, this is the first empirical study to estimate the conditional multiple-years model put forward by Stock and Wise (1990). This implies that we account for dynamic self-selection bias. We also present an extended version of this model in which the marginal value of leisure is random. For the female sample, the model is able to predict almost perfectly the age-specific hazard rates. For the male sample, we obtain a good fit. Dynamic self-selection results in a downward bias in the estimate of the marginal utility of leisure. We perform a simulation study to gauge the effects of a dramatic pension reform. Underestimation of the value of leisure translates into sizeable over-prediction of the impact of reform. Due to lack of data, results for males should be interpreted with caution since we are not able to fully correct for dynamic self-selection bias.</p>
The Importance of Financial Incentives on Retirement Choices
Full text linkThis study exploits a new dataset in order to quantify the effect of financial incentives on retirement choices. This dataset contains for the first time in Italy information on seniority. In accordance with the general finding in Gruber and Wise (2004), we find that financial incentives have an effect on retirement. The effect goes in the expected direction; when employees become eligible for pension benefits the change in financial incentives they experience is so high that their retirement probability increases in a sizable way. We also find that the procedure to impute seniority used in previous studies leads to a sizable measurement error. Due to this measurement error, the key parameters of the model are inconsistently estimated. Our sensitivity analysis suggests that the lack of appropriate information on seniority is an important reason for the unclear evidence so far obtained in retirement studies for Italy
Lifetime income and old age mortality risk in Italy over two decades
Full text link<p>BACKGROUND</p><p>The evidence on the shape and trend of the relationship between (lifetime) income and old age mortality is scarce and mixed both for North American and European countries. Nationwide evidence for Italy does not exist yet.</p><p>OBJECTIVE</p><p>We investigate the shape and evolution of the association between lifetime income and old age mortality risk, referred to as the income-old age mortality gradient, for males in the 1980s and the 1990s.</p><p>METHODS</p><p>We use data drawn from an administrative pension archive and proxy individual lifetime income with pension income. We use non-standard Cox proportional hazard models, in which the positions and number of the knots in the spline function for income are determined by the data.</p><p>RESULTS</p><p>The income-old age mortality gradient is negative but weak across most of the income distribution. Its shape shows two kink points situated almost at the same percentiles of the income distribution during the 1980s and the 1990s. The widening of the gradient over time is largely explained by regional differences in mortality and income.</p><p>CONCLUSIONS</p><p>Our findings show that mortality risk decreases with income. Once regional differences are controlled for, the relative difference in mortality risk between high and low-income individuals in Italy is rather stable over time.</p>
Financial Literacy and Financial Sophistication in the Older Population: Evidence from the 2008 HRS
Full text linkThis paper analyzes new data on financial literacy and financial sophistication from the 2008 Health and Retirement Study. We show that financial literacy is lacking among older individuals and for the first time explore additional questions on financial sophistication which proves even scarcer. For this sample of older respondents over the age of 55, we find that people lack even a rudimentary understanding of stock and bond prices, risk diversification, portfolio choice, and investment fees. In view of the fact that individuals are increasingly required to take on responsibility for their own retirement security, this lack of knowledge has serious implications.
Financial Literacy and Financial Sophistication Among Older Americans
Full text linkThis paper analyzes new data on financial literacy and financial sophistication from the 2008 Health and Retirement Study. We show that financial literacy is lacking among older individuals and for the first time explore additional questions on financial sophistication which proves even scarcer. For this sample of older respondents over the age of 55, we find that people lack even a rudimentary understanding of stock and bond prices, risk diversification, portfolio choice, and investment fees. In view of the fact that individuals are increasingly required to take on responsibility for their own retirement security, this lack of knowledge has serious implications.
Are defined contribution pension schemes socially sustainable? A conceptual map from a macroprudential perspective
Full text linkIf the combined retirement income, provided by public and private defined contribution (DC) pension schemes, falls below socially acceptable standards, there is a political risk that consensus seeker policymakers could yield to pressures to commit future fiscal revenues. These contingent liabilities, when incorporated in markets’ expectations, are bound to create spillovers on sovereign risk, with negative feedback loops on the capital adequacy of banks and of other intermediaries, owing to losses on their government paper. Among the causes of reduced annuities out of the final assets in DC pension funds is an equity risk premium much lower than the commonly values advertised by the industry and by policymakers. From a macroprudential perspective, this political risk should be taken into account in stress tests assessing banks’ resilience to financial shocks.pensions, equity risk premium, political risk, sovereign risk, stress test;
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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