Successive reforms enacted since the 1990s have dramatically changed Europe’s pensions landscape. This paper tries to assess the impact of recent reforms on the ability of systems to alleviate poverty and maintain living standards, using estimates of pension wealth for a number of hypothetical...

We consider a situation where the relatively ‘poor’ are concerned about their relative income status with respect to a relevant reference group. Such a concern is explicitly introduced in a utility function to study the consumption and saving behavior of the poor in terms of a static and...

Most assessments of pension sustainability focus on the projected fall in spending. However interest in the impact on adequacy, usually measured by replacement rates, is increasing. In this paper we show that replacement rates have significant defects, related to being point-in-time indicators...

Inadequate utilisation of available manpower is a perennial problem in India, with Open Unemployment (OU) being a major evil. Two other issues that have often been sidelined are Lack of Regular employment (Underemployment or Semi-Open Unemployment SOU), and Lack of Adequate Returns from jobs...

Throughout the world child labour has been an area of lively debate for about a decade with many different viewpoints on the issue. It is argued that in developing countries with poverty, inequality, social norms, credit-land-labour market imperfections, high fertility and unpredictable...

Child labour is in focus for last two decades as it robs children of the chance to enhance human capital. This paper examines the Indian situation using data from 50th, 55th and 61st rounds of NSSO Surveys. Child Workers have declined from 9.1 million in 1993 to 5.8 million in 2004, declining by...

Spurred by the ageing transition, many governments have made wide-ranging reforms, dramatically changing Europe's pensions landscape. Nevertheless there remain concerns about future costs, while unease about adequacy is growing. This study develops a comprehensive framework to assess pension...

Though the main benchmark used to assess pension reforms continues to be the expected resulting fall in future government spending, the impact of policy changes on pension adequacy is increasingly coming to the fore. As yet, there does not seem to be a broad consensus in policymaking circles and...

Since the 1990s reforms have changed substantially both the nature of state pension provision and the level of generosity. This article tries to assess the impact of these changes using estimates of pension wealth for a number of hypothetical cases. By focusing on all prospective pension...

In this lecture, I will try to start answering the question of whether the pension reforms enacted in Europe since the 1990s will prove to be sustainable. This broad question has embedded in it both theoretical and empirical sub-questions. On the theoretical side, I will need to see how best to...