The Pension Challenge: Risk Transfers and Retirement Income Security

This book, the first in a new series produced by the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School in collaboration with Oxford University Press, explores ways to enhance retirement security in a volatile financial environment. Mitchell and Smetters begin by assessing the myriad retirement risks confronting employees, retirees, employers, and governments, and it shows how stakeholders can work to reinvent pensions that perform well in a competitive global setting. Contributors then indicate how pension systems can be better designed to help protect against these risks. Of special interest is a discussion of new financial products and structures to meet and manage challenges to old-age security. Examples considered include pension investment guarantees and hedges, adapting catastrophe bonds to the pension context, and key regulatory structures and portfolio requirements designed to protect unwary or unwitting pension participants. The contributors draw important lessons for a wide range of countries, drawing from both developed and developing market experiences. Contributors include world-famous finance experts and risk management faculty, development economists, pension regulators, and pension consultants. Contributors to this volume - Zvi Bodie, School of Management, Boston University David Cummins, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Suzanne Doyle, School of Economics, University of New South Wales, Arthur Fliegelman, Financial Institutions Group, Moody's Investors Service Peter Forsyth, University of Waterloo Jeremy Gold, Jeremy Gold Pensions, New York Marie-Eve Lachance, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Christopher M. Lewis, NetRisk, and Finance Department, University of Connecticut Raimond Maurer, Goethe University Mosh Arye Milevsky, Schulich School of Business, York University Olivia S. Mitchell, Executive Director of the Pension Research Council, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Robert Palacios, Social Protection Unit, World Bank John Piggott, University of New South Wales David Rajnes, Employee Benefit Research Unit, Washington Krishna Ramaswamy, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Scott A. Robinson, Life Insurance Group, Moody's Investors Service Christian Schlag, Goethe University Kent Smetters, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania John Turner, Public Policy Institute, AARP Stephen P. Utkus, The Vanguard Group Kenneth Vetzal, Centre for Advanced Studies in Finance, University of Waterloo Jan Walliser, African Department, International Monetary Fund Heath Windcliff, Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo