Financial markets in major economies have been broadly strong after some weakening in the first part of the fourth quarter of 2005. Equity markets in the euro area have been buoyant over the past few months, and the strong upswing of Japanese markets in the fourth quarter was perhaps driven by...

In addition to private pension fund and life insurance assets, several countries have accumulated large amounts of pension assets in their national pension reserve funds. Pension reserve fund refers to assets set aside by otherwise pay-as-you-go systems in preparation for the rising fiscal costs...

Over the past few months, prices in major financial markets have remained strong despite further oil price increases. After major equity markets had shown a soft spot around March and April, they regained their upward trend in the second quarter. Terrorist attacks in London in July and the...

In 2003, the OECD established the Financial Education Project in response to the increasing interest of its member countries in improving the financial literacy of their consumers. Phase one of this project has culminated in the publication of the first major study of financial education at the...

In the late 1980's the OECD began co-operation (i.e. policy dialogue with nonmember economies) with the Asian Newly Industrialising Economies, and when the Berlin wall fell in 1989 it launched a programme with the Central and East European countries in transition.

In 2002, the OECD launched, through the Working Party on Private Pensions and the Task Force on Pension Statistics,1 the Global Pension Statistics Project,2 which aims to establish a harmonised set of statistics and indicators related to funded pensions. This article3 is an extract from the OECD...

This paper empirically explores the impact of pension funds on market volatility, equity prices, government and corporate bond yields for a panel of 24 countries. The results show a positive and statistically significant relationship between market volatility and pension assets. It complements...

Over the next decades, OECD countries will experience a significant ageing of their populations. Changes in the age structure of populations affect the economy’s saving behaviour, including the level of saving and the choices of saving vehicles. During the 1990s, financial markets in general...

The OECD Guidelines on Pension Fund Asset Management set out a basic framework for the regulation of pension fund investment. The Guidelines start with the basic premise that the regulatory framework should take into account the retirement income objective of a pension fund. Two other essential...

Triggered by sub-prime and Shanghai stock exchange volatility, major stock markets suffered a significant correction at the end of February. Markets have since recovered and European markets have over the past few weeks more than compensated these losses. While another downturn on the Shanghai...