Making public sector pensions less generous.

Public sector pensions have become ‘bogey of the moment’ for coalition government ministers, following warnings of steep increases in future obligations. Leandro Carrera explains the key issues lying behind the current alarms.

Governing the Euro area in good times and bad, Oxford University Press , Oxford 2011.

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Radical pension reforms after the crisis: a comparative analysis of Argentina and Greece

Scholarly attention on pension reform following the recent global financial crisis has focused primarily on cases entailing the renationalization of private pension pillars. We argue that radical pension reforms should also include instances of radical retrenchment of public pension pillars. We offer an explanation of such reforms in the aftermath of the crisis by analyzing the reforms adopted in Argentina and Greece since 2008. We demonstrate that highly indebted countries with no access to international financial markets and unsustainable pension systems can introduce radical reforms in response to short-term funding needs rather than long-term adequacy concerns. We argue that the narrow timeframe of the recent reforms raises questions about the sound footing of the new systems which may ultimately not prevent the introduction of further measures. This comparison provides insights to understand recent episodes of radical pension reforms in other countries

Political competition and societal veto players: the politics of pension reform in Southern Europe

While Southern European countries have pursued a series of pension reforms since the early 1990s, significant variation arises across them. Focusing on the concept of political replacement risk (the probability of a government being electorally punished for pursuing a given policy) and the changes in the labor movement's organizational structure, this article seeks to elucidate the differences in reform outcomes, in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain. Our analysis shows that significant reforms are implemented when governments face a high political replacement risk and the labor movement has undergone changes in its structure. By contrast, governments facing a stronger labor movement will generally be less effective at passing significant reforms, unless they can secure a strong support over the necessity to implement reforms

The diversity and causality of pension reform pathways: a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

Pension reform is one of the top public policy priorities in advanced industrialized countries due to population ageing and the significant weight of pension spending in governments’ budgets. As a result of these concerns European countries have engaged in varying degrees of pension reforms over the last three decades. The extant literature on pension reform focuses on structural, institutional and blame avoidance theories to explain how pension reform take place. Yet, how do different conditions combine to lead to significant pension reform outcomes? To answer this question we analyze a set of 48 pension reform cases in eight European countries since the late 1980s up until 2014 by using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our main finding is that institutional, structural or blame avoidance theories cannot account by themselves for instances of significant pension reform. Rather, we find three pathways that combine structural and institutional conditions to lead to significant pension reform

Resting state networks of the canine brain under sevoflurane anaesthesia

Resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) has become an established technique in humans and reliably determines several resting state networks (RSNs) simultaneously. Limited data exist about RSN in dogs. The aim of this study was to investigate the RSNs in 10 healthy beagle dogs using a 3 tesla MRI scanner and subsequently perform group-level independent component analysis (ICA) to identify functionally connected brain networks. Rs-fMRI sequences were performed under steady state sevoflurane inhalation anaesthesia. Anaesthetic depth was titrated to the minimum level needed for immobilisation and mechanical ventilation of the patient. This required a sevoflurane MAC between 0.8 to 1.2. Group-level ICA dimensionality of 20 components revealed distributed sensory, motor and higher-order networks in the dogs’ brain. We identified in total 7 RSNs (default mode, primary and higher order visual, auditory, two putative motor-somatosensory and one putative somatosensory), which are common to other mammals including humans. Identified RSN are remarkably similar to those identified in awake dogs. This study proves the feasibility of rs-fMRI in anesthetized dogs and describes several RSNs, which may set the basis for investigating pathophysiological characteristics of various canine brain diseases

Genome-wide Analyses Identify KIF5A as a Novel ALS Gene

To identify novel genes associated with ALS, we undertook two lines of investigation. We carried out a genome-wide association study comparing 20,806 ALS cases and 59,804 controls. Independently, we performed a rare variant burden analysis comparing 1,138 index familial ALS cases and 19,494 controls. Through both approaches, we identified kinesin family member 5A (KIF5A) as a novel gene associated with ALS. Interestingly, mutations predominantly in the N-terminal motor domain of KIF5A are causative for two neurodegenerative diseases: hereditary spastic paraplegia (SPG10) and Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2 (CMT2). In contrast, ALS-associated mutations are primarily located at the C-terminal cargo-binding tail domain and patients harboring loss-of-function mutations displayed an extended survival relative to typical ALS cases. Taken together, these results broaden the phenotype spectrum resulting from mutations in KIF5A and strengthen the role of cytoskeletal defects in the pathogenesis of ALS.Peer reviewe

How are pensions changing in the UK?

There are significant changes to the welfare system now on the cards from the new coalition government, and the pension system is not exempt. Leandro Carrera examines these changes in detail and looks at how the state and public sector pensions might be affected in the years to come

High fees in UK pension plans can cost thousands: we need to look to Europe to find better ways of managing pensions

In previous posts we have highlighted how pension systems must be adapted to the fact that we are living longer, and one of the most common recommendations is to incentivise people to save in personal private pensions. Leandro Carrera investigates how high fees in pension plans can significantly reduce final pensions, and what the UK can learn from other European countries’ pension schemes