In the light of new theoretical and empirical work on the Permanent Income Hypothesis we tackle earlier findings for German data, which reject its validity given a large fraction of liquidity constrained consumers. Starting from a standard short run approach we do not find evidence for excess...

China?s pension system is in need of comprehensive reform in that it is fragmented in its coverage and significantly under-funded. Attempts to improve the coverage will likely exacerbate the financial strains. Thus it is urgent to improve the financial sustainability of the system and one policy...

The basic concept of a reverse mortgage is loan available to homeowners who are 65 years or older that enables them to convert part of the equity in their home into cash. The loan is called a reverse mortgage because the traditional mortgage payback stream is reversed. Instead of making monthly...