How to make European pensions adequate and sustainable?

How to make European pensions adequate and sustainable?

Author: Juraj Draxler

Publisher: CEPS

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 16

ISBN-13: 9290798629

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Presents the results of the research project on Adequacy and Sustainability of Old Age Income in the EU (AIM). Examines the differences among EU member States when it comes to saving for retirement. Suggests that while in some countries the working age population is able to sustain their consumption on retirement, in others there ia a significant saving gap.


Empirical Asset Pricing

Empirical Asset Pricing

Author: Wayne Ferson

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2019-03-12

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 0262039370

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An introduction to the theory and methods of empirical asset pricing, integrating classical foundations with recent developments. This book offers a comprehensive advanced introduction to asset pricing, the study of models for the prices and returns of various securities. The focus is empirical, emphasizing how the models relate to the data. The book offers a uniquely integrated treatment, combining classical foundations with more recent developments in the literature and relating some of the material to applications in investment management. It covers the theory of empirical asset pricing, the main empirical methods, and a range of applied topics. The book introduces the theory of empirical asset pricing through three main paradigms: mean variance analysis, stochastic discount factors, and beta pricing models. It describes empirical methods, beginning with the generalized method of moments (GMM) and viewing other methods as special cases of GMM; offers a comprehensive review of fund performance evaluation; and presents selected applied topics, including a substantial chapter on predictability in asset markets that covers predicting the level of returns, volatility and higher moments, and predicting cross-sectional differences in returns. Other chapters cover production-based asset pricing, long-run risk models, the Campbell-Shiller approximation, the debate on covariance versus characteristics, and the relation of volatility to the cross-section of stock returns. An extensive reference section captures the current state of the field. The book is intended for use by graduate students in finance and economics; it can also serve as a reference for professionals.


Retirement Decisions

Retirement Decisions

Author: United States. Government Accountability Office

Publisher: Nova Science Pub Incorporated

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 87

ISBN-13: 9781604568127

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The first wave of the 78 million member baby boom generation is now reaching retirement age. The number of people age 62, the earliest age of eligibility for Social Security retired worker benefits, is expected to be 21 percent higher in 2009 than in 2008. In addition, by 2030, the number of workers supporting each retiree is projected to be 2.2, down from 3.3 in 2006. This demographic shift poses challenges to the economy, federal tax revenues, the nation's old-age programs, and individuals' financial security in retirement. For those who are able to work longer, later retirement can strengthen the economy and also retiree incomes by postponing the time at which people will start drawing retirement benefits rather than working. A wide range of factors including the features of employers' benefit plans, personal finances, social norms, health, and individual attitudes influence workers' decisions about when to retire. Federal policies may also play a role: these include Social Security, Medicare, and tax policies related to certain private retiree health and defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pension plans.1 Identifying both the incentives posed by these policies and the extent to which workers respond to them can help to inform policy makers as they consider ways to address the demographic challenges facing the nation. To determine the extent to which federal policiesdirectly and indirectly-pose incentives and are influencing individuals decisions about the age at which they retire, the authors have pursued the following questions: (1) What incentives do federal policies provide about when to retire? (2) What are the recent retirement patterns, and is there evidence that recent changes in Social Security requirements have resulted in later retirements? (3) Is there evidence that tax-favored private retiree health insurance and pension benefits have influenced when people retire? This is a revised and excerpted version.


Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation

Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation

Author: Kenneth Train

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-07-06

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 0521766559

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This book describes the new generation of discrete choice methods, focusing on the many advances that are made possible by simulation. Researchers use these statistical methods to examine the choices that consumers, households, firms, and other agents make. Each of the major models is covered: logit, generalized extreme value, or GEV (including nested and cross-nested logits), probit, and mixed logit, plus a variety of specifications that build on these basics. Simulation-assisted estimation procedures are investigated and compared, including maximum stimulated likelihood, method of simulated moments, and method of simulated scores. Procedures for drawing from densities are described, including variance reduction techniques such as anithetics and Halton draws. Recent advances in Bayesian procedures are explored, including the use of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm and its variant Gibbs sampling. The second edition adds chapters on endogeneity and expectation-maximization (EM) algorithms. No other book incorporates all these fields, which have arisen in the past 25 years. The procedures are applicable in many fields, including energy, transportation, environmental studies, health, labor, and marketing.


Social Science Research

Social Science Research

Author: Anol Bhattacherjee

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2012-04-01

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9781475146127

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This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.


The Derivatives Sourcebook

The Derivatives Sourcebook

Author: Terence Lim

Publisher: Now Publishers Inc

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1933019212

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The Derivatives Sourcebook is a citation study and classification system that organizes the many strands of the derivatives literature and assigns each citation to a category. Over 1800 research articles are collected and organized into a simple web-based searchable database. We have also included the 1997 Nobel lectures of Robert Merton and Myron Scholes as a backdrop to this literature.


Good Economics for Hard Times

Good Economics for Hard Times

Author: Abhijit V. Banerjee

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2019-11-12

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 1541762878

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The winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. Figuring out how to deal with today's critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known it. Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change--these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there--what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if we fail, the potential losses are incalculable. In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. It is an extraordinary achievement, one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.


The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report

Author: Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.

Published: 2011-05-01

Total Pages: 692

ISBN-13: 1616405414

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The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.