Extending Gaussian hypergeometric series to the pp-adic setting

We define a function which extends Gaussian hypergeometric series to the $p$-adic setting. This new function allows results involving Gaussian hypergeometric series to be extended to a wider class of primes. We demonstrate this by providing various congruences between the function and truncated classical hypergeometric series. These congruences provide a framework for proving the supercongruence conjectures of Rodriguez-Villegas.Comment: Int. J. Number Theory, accepted for publicatio

Annuities for an ageing world

Substantial research attention has been devoted to the pension accumulation process, whereby employees and those advising them work to accumulate funds for retirement. Until recently, less analysis has been devoted to the pension decumulation process – the process by which retirees finance their consumption during retirement. This gap has recently begun to be filled by an active group of researchers examining key aspects of the pension payout market. One of the areas of most interesting investigation has been in the area of annuities, which are financial products intended to cover the risk of retirees outliving their assets. This paper reviews and extends recent research examining the role of annuities in helping finance retirement consumption. We also examine key market and regulatory factors

People with learning disabilities and mental health problems: the impact of ethnicity

There is increasing awareness of the needs of people with learning disabilities from different ethnic communities. This paper focuses on the impact of ethnicity on the presentation of mental health problems. The main aim of the paper is to inform those planning and delivering mental health services for people with learning disabilities of the current evidence, in order to enable their practice to improve health outcomes for people from minority ethnic communitie

International Adverse Selection in Life Insurance and Annuities

This paper evaluates the extent of adverse selection in life insurance and annuities in international markets, for both group and individual products. We also compare results with prior analyses of adverse selection in international annuity markets, focusing on the US, the UK, and Japan. Our results help assess the extent to which life insurers can hedge mortality exposure by writing both life insurance and annuities, and they may be used to determine a normal range for adverse selection in international insurance markets.

Annuities for an Ageing World

Substantial research attention has been devoted to the pension accumulation process, whereby employees and those advising them work to accumulate funds for retirement. Until recently, less analysis has been devoted to the pension decumulation process -- the process by which retirees finance their consumption during retirement. This gap has recently begun to be filled by an active group of researchers examining key aspects of the pension payout market. One of the areas of most interesting investigation has been in the area of annuities, which are financial products intended to cover the risk of retirees outliving their assets. This paper reviews and extends recent research examining the role of annuities in helping finance retirement consumption. We also examine key market and regulatory factors.