A simulation approach is used to investigate how various investment strategies affect the ability of retirees to spend at a desired level up until death. Retirees are assumed to maintain all investment and longevity risk, and also have access to a government-sponsored and means-tested Age Pension to provide part of their desired expenditure. It is found that a 100% allocation to growth assets is optimal for large expenditure desires relative to initial balance levels, with allocations outside of this being sensitive to movements in initial balance and desired expenditure level, as well as interactions with the Age Pension.

How do pension fund trustees deal with demographic and economic shocks? We examine this issue by using a vignette study among pension fund trustees in the Netherlands. Trustees show asymmetric reactions to shocks in the level of reserves of pension funds. Pension premiums are upwardly flexible but trustees are reluctant to decrease premiums. Asymmetries are also revealed by choices regarding the inflation indexation of benefits and changing real (defined) benefits. Asymmetry is not visible in the policy responses to demographic shocks: increases in life expectancy are reflected by taking structural measures for a defined benefit contract: raising pension premiums and the pension age. Furthermore, trustees allow their choices to be affected by the forces of social comparison: the reserve position of their fund compared to the position of other funds has a significant influence in choosing pension fund policy instruments.

Many economists and policy-makers argue that households do not save enough to maintain an adequate standard of living during retirement. However, there is no consensus on the answer to the underlying question about what this standard should be, despite the fact that it is crucial for the design of saving incentives and pension systems. We address this question with a randomized survey design, individually tailored to each respondent's financial situation, and conducted both in the U.S. and The Netherlands. We find that adequate levels of retirement spending exceed 80% of working life spending for a majority of respondents. Minimum acceptable income replacement rates range from 95 to 45% across income quintiles in the U.S., and from 75 to 60% across income quintiles in The Netherlands. The smaller range in The Netherlands may in part reflect the much tighter income distribution there.

This paper investigates empirically how unemployment-induced employment-breaks at different career stages influence pension benefits. The analysis is based on German data. I distinguish four different career phases and investigate to what extent the prevailing social security policy compensated for earning losses. The results suggest that (1) losses in pension benefits were the greatest if unemployment occurred in the middle of a career (between 31 and 50); (2) social security policies have had a mitigating effect on losses in pension benefits. These findings indicate that institutions have a decided influence on how career patterns translate into pension benefits.

We analyze the consequences of increasing MENA-to-EU migration on both sending and receiving regions. Using a general equilibrium model, we find that increasing MENA-to-EU migration generates significant changes in EU15 tax rates and income per capita. Compared to a non-selective immigration shock, selecting immigrants leads to a moderate reduction in tax rates, but to a greater impact on income per capita in the EU15. Emigration, especially if high-skilled, has a detrimental impact on MENA tax rates. Finally, the negative effects in MENA are mitigated if the brain drain leads to side-effects or is accompanied by increased education attainment at origin.

This paper addresses the issue of lifetime ruin, which is defined as running out of money before death. Taking into account the random nature of the remaining lifetime, we discuss how a retiree should invest in order to avoid lifetime ruin. We also discuss the conditional time of lifetime ruin and the notion of bequest or wealth at death.

Using analytical approximations based on comonotonicity, we provide a new approach which is easy to understand and leads to very accurate results without computationally complex calculations. Our analytical approach avoids simulation, which allows to solve very general optimal portfolio selection problems.