Reports

The 2023 edition of Pensions at a Glance highlights the pension reforms undertaken by OECD countries over the last two years. It includes a special chapter focusing on pension provisions for hazardous or arduous work. It describes existing rules, characterises recent policy trends and assesses the design and functioning of early-retirement rules for hazardous or arduous jobs given changing working conditions and ageing pressure on pension systems. This edition also updates information on the key features of pension provision in OECD and G20 countries and provides projections of retirement income for today’s workers. It offers indicators covering the design of pension systems, pension entitlements, the demographic and economic context in which pension systems operate, incomes and poverty of older people, the finances of retirement income systems and private pensions.

This edition of Pension Markets in Focus provides detailed and comparable statistics on asset-backed pension systems around the world, with data from January to December 2022. It examines the drivers of changes in total assets accumulated, including contributions and benefits paid, as well as financial market developments. In addition, the report assesses the financial sustainability of defined benefit plans (guaranteeing specific payments to plan members) and documents the fees paid by members.

This edition of Pension Markets in Focus provides detailed and comparable statistics on asset-backed pension systems around the world, with data from January to December 2022. It examines the drivers of changes in total assets accumulated, including contributions and benefits paid, as well as financial market developments. In addition, the report assesses the financial sustainability of defined benefit plans (guaranteeing specific payments to plan members) and documents the fees paid by members.

This work delves into the liquidations mechanism inherent in Decentralised Finance (DeFi) lending protocols and the connection between liquidations and price volatility in decentralised exchanges (DEXs). The analysis employs transactional data of three of the largest DeFi lending protocols and provides evidence of a positive relation between liquidations and post-liquidations price volatility across the main DEX pools. Without directly observing the behaviour of liquidators, these findings indirectly indicate that liquidators require market liquidity to carry out large liquidations and affect market conditions while doing so.

This report presents an in-depth cross-country analysis of how long-term care workers fare along the different dimensions of job quality. In the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the applause for care workers was a clear expression of the strong recognition of their hard work and exposure to risks in their job. However, as the applause faded after the peak of the crisis, questions have re-emerged about how to improve the working conditions of long-term care workers in a sustainable way. Over the coming decades, the demand for these workers will increase substantially. Several countries are already facing shortages as the large baby-boom generation joins the older population. To go Beyond Applause, a comprehensive policy strategy is needed to tackle poor working conditions and insufficient social recognition of long-term care work, attract workers in the sector and avoid labour shortages reaching unacceptable levels. Such a strategy should cover several dimensions, with different priorities across countries depending on their specific context, including: direct interventions to raise wages and increase staff requirements; increasing public financing and fostering the leading role by governments; supporting collective bargaining and social dialogue; strengthening training; increasing use of new technologies; and, strengthening health prevention policies.

This report analyses the development of mortality assumptions to build mortality tables to better protect retirement income provision. Mortality assumptions are necessary to ensure the sustainability of lifetime incomes. It explores considerations and traditional approaches for developing mortality tables, as well as provides an international overview of longevity trends and drivers over the last several decades, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also details the standard mortality tables developed across OECD member countries and offers guidelines to assist regulators and supervisors in assessing whether the mortality assumptions and tables used in the context of retirement income provision are appropriate.

Many of Asia’s retirement-income systems are ill prepared for the rapid population ageing that will occur over the next two decades. Asia’s pension systems urgently need to be reformed to ensure that they are both financially sustainable and provide adequate retirement incomes. This report examines the retirement-income systems of 11 non-OECD countries in the region, comparing the results with a selection of OECD countries. The report provides new data for comparing pension systems of different countries. It combines the OECD’s expertise in modelling pension entitlements with a network of national pension experts who provided detailed information at the country level, verified key results and provided feedback and input to improve the analysis.

The OECD Pensions Outlook discusses how to introduce, develop and strengthen asset-backed pension arrangements, the role that employers can play in their provision, and the implication of different fee structures on individuals saving for retirement and on providers. The 2022 edition focuses on describing best practices for developing mortality tables and providing policy guidance on how to design, implement and continue the operation of non-guaranteed lifetime retirement income arrangements.

This publication analyses the impact COVID-19 has had on asset-backed pension arrangements and the main policies countries have implemented in response to date. It then presents policy guidelines to help strengthen asset-backed pension arrangements and improve retirement outcomes in a post-COVID world. The publication also discusses the short- and long-term impact of COVID-19 on mortality, and the role that assets earmarked for retirement could play in the post-COVID recovery.