Social investing, by both the political left and right, frequently ends up hurting the very people--particularly the economically disadvantaged--that it is supposed to help.

This paper discusses a Detailed Assessment of the Observance of the Insurance Core Principles for Italy. The assessment reveals that insurance supervision in Italy occurs within a legal framework that incorporates the relevant European Union Directives. More than two-thirds of the principles...

The paper focuses on the effects of the integration in a perfect world capital market of two large economies running respectively a pay-as-you-go and a fully funded pension system. Under the assumption that the pay-as-you-go is in steady state and self financing, the integration causes changes...

The paper deals with a wide-spread myth that a switch from a PAYG to a funded pension system might solve adverse consequences of the population aging. It is shown, that under additional assumptions the pension debt (which is created during the process of the switch) is exactly equal to the value...

This essay focuses on the pension system and highlights some of its key elements. The first part deals with the economic principles connected with the social security system. Eatwell's model is utilized to give some basic intuition of terms and concepts used in the pension reform discussion. The...

The changes that are taking place in the structure of the population of many Western countries are likely to require considerable adjustments in their social security programs. A partial shift from pay-as-you-go (PAYG) to funding is one of the solutions frequently considered. This paper, without...

Trade unions are understood to be losing a great part of their capacity of pressure and influence in post-fordist economies. This paper shows how the role played by the Spanish trade unions in the process of reform of the pension system has been very significant.

Population ageing implies that the large pay-as-you-go social security programs implemented in many OECD economies will run into severe financial problems. By means of a numerical overlapping generations model, this paper investigates the intergenerational welfare effects of a transition to...

Non-contributory social security is increasingly attracting the attention of developing country policymakers and observers, not least as a mechanism to help address the perceived failure of contributory social security to reduce poverty in developing countries. This development is most visible...

This paper explores insurance as a source of financial system vulnerability. It provides a brief overview of the insurance industry and reviews the risks it faces, as well as several recent failures of insurance companies that had systemic implications. Assimilation of banking-type activities by...