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The Relevance of Index Funds for Pension Investment in Equities

Autor: Shah, Ajay; Fernandes, Kshama
Año: 2000
Resumen: The rise of index funds over the past 25 years has been a remarkable phenomenon. The traditional rationale for the success of index funds is market efficiency, net of transaction costs. The authors also focus on the role of agency conflicts between fund managers and investors, which are hard to resolve, given the low power of statistical tests of performance. Most of the empirical evidence about the superiority of index funds comes from the United States. The authors discuss issues associated with the application of index funds in developing countries, as well as policy issues in the financial sector that affect the enabling market infrastructure for index funds. They also apply these ideas to thinking about the relevance of index funds for pension investment. The equity premium provides powerful motivation for equity investment by pension funds. Index funds make it possible to sidestep the complexities of forming contracts and monitoring institutions to govern fund managers. In developing countries that seek to use index funds in pension investment, there are avenues through which policymakers can make index funds more viable. In many countries there are significant avenues for improving construction of the market index as well as market mechanisms used in the equity market.

Fuente: Banco Mundial
Clasificación: Fondos de Inversión
Tipo de Publicación: Documentos de Trabajo
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Reforming Pensions: Myths, Truths, and Policy Choices

Autor: Barr, Nicholas
Año: 2000
Resumen: This paper discusses the strategic building blocks of pension reform. The early sections set out the simple economics of pensions and discuss a series of myths which have proved remarkably persistent. Subsequent sections draw together the conclusions for policy design from earlier theoretical discussion, set out the prerequisites which any pension reform must respect, and discuss the range of choices facing policymakers. The main conclusions are threefold: the key variable is effective government; from an economic perspective the difference between PAYG and funding is second order; and the range of potential choice over pension design is wide.

Fuente: Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI)
Clasificación: Seguridad Social y Sistemas de Pensiones
Tipo de Publicación: Documentos de Trabajo
Idioma:

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The Decumulation (Payout) Phase of Defined Contribution Pillars: Policy Issues in the Provision of Annuities and Other Benefits

Autor: James, Estelle; Vittas, Dimitri
Año: 2000
Resumen: Most countries reforming their pension system, focus more on the accumulation phase, than on the decumulation (pay-out), because the number of beneficiaries is likely to be small initially, especially if older workers are discouraged from joining the new system. Policymakers place a priority on the new accumulation system being administratively efficient, and well regulated. But the decumulation phase must also be well organized, and efficient. The purpose of pension systems is, after all, to pay retirement benefits - old age, survivor, and disability pensions. The authors argue that: 1) Pay-out arrangements are likely to evolve gradually, through trial and error, as problems are discovered and tackled. 2) Adverse selection may not be as great a problem as is sometimes thought. 3) Many other annuity, and insurance market problems have yet to be solved, and policies must be formulated to make these markets work as well. The under-development of voluntary annuity markets is only partly explained by adverse selection, argue the authors. Other factors are also at work: the bequest, and precautionary motives for saving; individuals' myopia and ignorance; mistrust of insurance companies; the "luxury good" nature of annuities; tax policies that favor lump sum withdrawals; and, last but not least, public policies (such as the offer of social security pensions and the encouragement of occupational pension plans) that tend to crowd out individual annuities. The long-term success of pension reform depends on vigorous efforts to develop the insurance industry. Weak and under-developed in most developing countries, the insurance industry should play a central role in providing old age, survivor, and disability benefits. Many policy issues require careful thought, and extensive empirical analysis: Should annuitization be mandatory, and at what level? Should indexed (or "real") annuities be required? Should variable annuities be permitted, or encouraged? Should joint annuities be required? How much "group rating" and "risk classification" should be permitted?

Fuente: Banco Mundial
Clasificación: Beneficios
Tipo de Publicación: Documentos de Trabajo
Idioma:

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The Australian Annuity Market

Autor: Knox, David M.
Año: 2000
Resumen: In Australia, a means-tested old-age public pension is paid from general tax revenues. A full pension (equivalent to roughly a quarter of the average wage) is currently paid to more than half the aged population, and a reduced pension is paid to another quarter of the aged population. About 20 percent receive no old-age public pension because of the level of their income or assets. There is also a compulsory system under which employers contribute at least 7 percent of salaries into a superannuation plan for the vast majority of employees. (This minimum rate will gradually rise to 9 percent in 2002.) More than 80 percent of superannuation benefits are received as lump sums; when public sector employees are excluded, the figure rises to almost 90 percent. The market for private life annuities with longevity insurance is very small. Greater use is made of allocated annuities, which are similar to income drawdowns in the United Kingdom or scheduled withdrawals in Latin American countries. The value of life annuities, measured by the money's worth ratio, compares favorably with that of annuities available in the United Kingdom and United States. But these ratios are calculated on the basis of conservative government bond yields. Many investors prefer allocated annuities--which are perceived to offer considerable advantages in flexibility and higher potential returns--despite the absence of longevity insurance.

Fuente: Banco Mundial
Clasificación: Fondos de Inversión
Tipo de Publicación: Documentos de Trabajo
Idioma:

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Contractual Savings or Stock Market Development—Which Leads?

Autor: Catalan, Mario; Impavido, Gregorio; Musalem, Alberto R.
Año: 2000
Resumen: The authors study the relationship between the development of contractual savings (assets of pension funds, and life insurance companies) and non-life insurance, and, the development of stock markets (market capitalization and value traded). Their contribution lies in providing time-series evidence on a hypothesis that is very popular - but had not been substantiated - among supporters of fully funded pension systems in which funds invest large shares of their portfolios in tradable securities (equities, bonds). The literature is not clear on its assumption regarding causality between contractual savings, and capital market development. A one-way or two-way relationship is assumed, usually inter-changeably; the authors address the questions of which leads empirically. They present the evidence, including descriptive statistics, and the results of Granger causality tests, for OECD countries, and such countries as Chile, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, and Thailand. They do not present a theoretical framework, but do explain how the growth of the contractual savings sector, is thought to promote financial development. The authors find evidence in the data that causality between institutions, and markets either does not exist, or, if it exists, runs predominantly from institutions to markets. To a lesser extent, there is simultaneous causality between institutions, and markets. Furthermore, there is limited evidence that causality runs only from markets to institutions (the only exception seems to be for non-life insurance in developing countries). Results seem to support the idea that the development of institutional investors, is likely to promote the growth of market capitalization, more than that of value traded. In developing countries, there seems to be no causality from pension funds to growth in value traded, while there is causality from life, and non-life insurance.

Fuente: Banco Mundial
Clasificación: Fondos de Inversión
Tipo de Publicación: Documentos de Trabajo
Idioma:

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