Pension systems in East Asia and the Pacific : challenges and opportunities

With the recovery from the recent crisis, countries of the East Asia and Pacific region are rethinking their financial, and social policy, including old-age protection. Population aging, in combination with ongoing urbanization, and economic transformation, will place increasing pressure on traditional family care arrangements. Coverage under formal pension systems is generally low, and the absence of social safety nets for the needy elderly, poses risks in the face of breaks in the economic growth path. In addition to common systemic challenges, formal old-age income support systems confront issues specific to their design type: 1) The national provident fund, and social security systems with reserve funds, have demonstrated problems with investment policy, and performance, governance and management. 2) In the established market economies, social security systems are fiscally unsustainable in the long run, and often have a weak benefit-contribution link. 3) These types of systems encounter additional problems in transition economies, including low contribution collection from previously socialized enterprises. Options addressed by the paper involve the adoption of an integrated view on retirement income provision, averting fiscal un-sustainability, and, integrating public, and private sector pensions. Additionally, moving toward a multi-pillar structure with prudent coverage extension, and, fostering financial markets, to allow decentralized pension funds management, are also suggested.Health Economics&Finance,Public Sector Economics,Pensions&Retirement Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform

Innovations in irrigation financing

"Financing for water projects, especially for irrigation, has been moving towards collapse in recent years due to declining donor and government funding. Some Indian states have undertaken innovative institutional reforms by setting up financially autonomous corporations to mobilise required funds from the domestic bond market. This analysis of the performance of one such corporation, Karnataka's Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigam Limited, indicates that although adequate funds were mobilised, and physical works are on schedule, the new institution did not attempt to enhance overall irrigation performance and to move towards financial sustainability of the irrigation project. This paper describes the background of this institution, its achievements, inadequacies and potential of the innovative efforts made in irrigation financing reforms." Authors' AbstractIrrigation India ,Irrigation projects India ,Finance ,Government spending policy ,

Complex network analysis of transmission mechanism for sustainable incentive policies

Existing research mainly focuses on the external impact of incentive policies of industrialized/manufactured construction (IMC). However, it is still unclear how the transmission mechanism among cities and regions of IMC incentive policies works in the process of formulation. To fill the knowledge gap, this study establishes a relationship matrix to propose the transmission-weighted complex network (TWCN). Degree distribution and clustering coefficient are used to calculate the transmission path and the transmission intensity of TWCN. The validation is based on data collected from 415 policy documents (2010–2018) and 2923 items from 181 nodes of the TWCN for IMC policies. The findings show that transmission path of IMC incentive policies is from the eastern coast of China to the central, western and northern regions. Fiscal and taxation incentives have the greatest intensity of spatial agglomeration in the transmission process. The results of the TWCN are consistent and conform to the scientific and rational expectations of research. Overall, the research outcomes are applicable to studies on sustainability policies in different fields, including sustainable construction, renewable energy, etc. Policy makers can implement the TWCN to recognize the performance and functions of different incentives and propose effective strategies to achieve sustainability.</jats:p

Housing policy and finance in Egypt: extending the reach of mortgage credit

This thesis attempts to address the need for a clear strategy for the supply side in the Egyptian mortgage market. The thesis focuses for the first time on the issues in relation to the role of the bank and non-bank financial institutions in the creation of an effective and sustainable mortgage market that works better for low- and moderate-income households in Egypt as well as the role of these institutions after the mortgage market has reached a certain stage of development. The key research objectives are as follows: 1) to address why Egyptian housing co-operative societies can be seen as important policy agents to expand the mortgage credit beneficiaries base in Egypt; 2) to evaluate the effectiveness of the Egyptian housing co-operative societies as community based organisations and policy agents; 3) to identify and analyse the various economic, social and political factors influencing this effectiveness; 4) to assess the role of the banking institutions (as contextual stakeholders in the immediate environment of the Egyptian housing co-operative societies) in expanding access to mortgage credit and savings in Egypt; and 5) to identify which institutions constrain most the development of an effective and sustainable level of mortgage credit for low- and moderate-income households. In order to address these issues and objectives, the researcher reviewed the theoretical and empirical issues associated with the assessment of mortgage credit intermediation models to identify their reach and the limit of that reach and, implicitly, to examine what needs to be done to close the gap on what would be a more accessible mortgage market. Further, from 2008 to 2010, the researcher surveyed and interviewed a group of banking, co-operative and government officers in Cairo, Egypt. Questions regarding their attitudes towards housing policy and finance in Egypt were posed, especially in relation to the provision of mortgage credit in Egypt. The thesis found that Egyptian banking institutions, as agents in carrying out housing policies and finance, enabled the housing co-operative societies as stakeholders to form expectations towards the results of the new reforms with the same framework as they had done before. The survey and interviews showed that housing co-operative societies were dissatisfied with the expected results of recent reforms in the Egyptian housing and mortgage markets. It appears that resistance to the reforms was caused by the fact that housing co-operative societies were not interested. But the thesis found that the unfair distributive results associated with mortgage credit allocation were resented most by housing co-operative societies. Thus, the thesis concludes that to extend the reach of mortgage credit, there needs to be a wider strategy to reform the housing and mortgage markets in Egypt that includes strengthening the role of community institutions such as Egyptian housing co-operative societies based on well defined and structured stakeholder framework

Examining the Extent to which Talent Housing Policy Acts as a Catalyst for Innovation Development in China

Since the beginning of economic reform in 1978, China has entered a rapidly growing period where technology innovation has become the new boosting engine of promoting economic development. With the burgeoning of emerging industries in China, the demand for innovation talents is rising greatly. Due to the great gap between Chinese mega cities and other cities in the field of innovation activities, people who possess these tech and innovative skills tend to concentrate in several mega cities, which intensifies housing affordable issue in these areas. And in return, housing affordability become an obstacle for innovation development. In order to improve the living conditions of talents and optimize the environment for innovation activities, local governments have formulated a variety of talent housing policies. As an important part of mitigating the housing burden for certain group of people, the purpose of this study is to explore if talent housing policy can affect regional innovation development and what are the impacts. This study incorporated a mixed-methodology research design to first, analyze the development and current situation of talent housing policies, and secondly explore how talent housing policy impact regional innovation activities by running several regression models using quantitative statistics. Finally, policy suggestions have been proposed based on above analysis. The research result illustrates that talent housing policy affects regional innovation development positively and this relationship can inform policy makers, urban planners, and public officials on better implementing housing policy to attract talented people

Social Welfare Systems in East Asia: A Comparative Analysis including Private Welfare

This paper is an overview of the social welfare systems of five East Asian countries, namely Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. It analyses the overall costs of welfare as well as income distribution aspects, based on both aggregate data and a programme-by-programme review of their welfare states (presented in annex). Private welfare is introduced in the analysis in two ways. First, it is argued that sometimes welfare programmes are characterised by a mix of public and private interventions, along the three dimensions of provision, finance and decision. Second, this study explores the welfare roles played by private actors alone, namely enterprises and families. The main conclusions are that (I) that Hong Kong and Singapore's public welfare expenditures will remain very low as long as they continue to rely mainly upon privately financed welfare programmes; (ii) Korea and Taiwan's public welfare expenditures will grow significantly in the coming years as their populations age, their old age pension programmes mature and their various insurance schemes are extended to marginal occupational groups; (iii) Japan's ageing problem is compounded by the weakening of the family as a provider of welfare, which will put an extra burden on her welfare state; (iv) Japan and Korea's enterprises are challenged in their chief welfare role, namely securing employment, which will also put an extra burden on their welfare states, and (v) the main income equalising factor in East Asia is the very equal distribution of work across households, which is also threatened by the weakening of enterprise and family welfare (i.e. respectively rising unemployment and decreasing income pooling inside the family).East Asia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, welfare, private welfare, social security, income distribution, enterprise welfare, familiy welfare, public expenditure

A comparative study of housing in Korea and Singapore

This thesis compares the historical development of housing in two Asian Tigers, Korea and Singapore. The thesis adopts comparative historical analysis for systematic and contextualised comparison across nation states. The thesis starts by reviewing the previous literature on the evolving views of housing policy and housing regimes in the Western welfare states and the newly industrialised countries in Asian-Pacific region. With these theoretical backgrounds, the thesis investigates and compares the.developments of the housing systems, its causal factors and consequences through comparative historical analysis. When it comes to accounting for variations in housing between Korea and Singapore, the case studies highlight how institutional characteristics established under colonial rule e.g. viewpoints on social policy including housing or the designs of schemes, were combined with different developmental strategies during the industrialisation period. In addition, the case studies pose and examine the new relationship between housing and other welfare pillars in Asia, which can be differentiated from those in Western contexts. The findings from the case studies reveal that the different ways in which development models and enduring institutional arrangements were combined acted as the critical factor determining the considerable variations apparent in housing policy and outcomes in Korea and Singapore. The thesis demonstrates that the emphasis on the variable of 'institutions' furthers the understanding of how path dependency dominated most housing policy developments in Korea and Singapore. When it comes to implications for comparative housing study, the findings support the interpretation that Asian housing regimes with several sub-groups can be differentiated from Western housing regimes. Finally, the findings indicate that it is time for both states to think over how to live with 'institutional legacies' generating considerable social costs

Malaysia’s pension system : performance and strategies for improvement

Population ageing and economic uncertainties made many question the extent to which current pension systems are able to provide adequate pension savings that can at least maintain standards of living during the retirement period. Much focus on pension issues and challenges has centred on developed nations rather than developing countries. In general, the framework of pension systems in developed countries are expected to be different in terms of policy and regulation than pension system practices in developing countries. As a project largely contributing to the literature for developing countries, this thesis seeks to explore the performance of the Malaysian pension system and investment strategy of Malaysia’s defined contribution pension scheme known as the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). This thesis is composed of three parts. The first part of this thesis explores the development and evolution of pension system in both developed and developing countries as well as analysing the performance and experiences in both nations. The second part of this thesis presents the performance of a pension system, primarily for the EPF. Finally, this thesis extends the investment analysis through analysing the impact of alternative assets on the EPF’s strategy. The significant of this study are: i) based on lesson from others country’s experiences, this thesis provides a comprehensive documentation analysis that gives a greater understanding of Malaysia’s pension system performance and future directions of the system towards preparing the nation for the ageing population; ii) with different policies and regulations from other country practices, this study develops the investment model methodologically tailored to the EPF case. iii) we extend a well-established TSP study for the EPF done by Hussin (2012) considering alternative international assets for the EPF context. Here, we provide new evidence of optimal investment strategy for the EPF after taking into account international diversification

India's Bond Market-Developments and Challenges Ahead

While India boasts a world-class equity market and increasingly important bank assets, its bond market has not kept up. The government bond market remains illiquid. The corporate bond market, in addition, remains restrictive to participants and largely arbitrage-driven. Securitization, which once had the jump on other Asian markets, has failed to take off. To meet the needs of its firms and investors, the bond market must therefore evolve. This will mean creating new market sectors such as exchange-traded interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives contracts. It will mean relaxing exchange restrictions, easing investment mandates on contractual savings institutions, reforming the stamp duty tax, and revamping disclosure requirements for corporate public offers. This paper reviews the development and outlook of the Indian bond market. It looks at the market participants-including life insurance, pension funds, mutual funds and foreign investors-and it discusses the importance to development of learning from the innovations and experiences of others.India; emerging East Asia; bond market; securitization; collateralized borrowing and lending obligations (CBLO)