• International Area Studies Review
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.221-243
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• 2017

In this study, I examine overall conditions and problems of personal asset management processes by the old age people in Korea from the global perspectives. Major recommended policy implications for those are as follows.. First, the IRR (income replacement ratio) of public pensions in Korea is found to rank nearly the lowest among the OECD member countries. The relatively low fund performance compared to that of developed countries as well as this low IRR can be pointed out as major problems of public pension in Korea. It is recommended to reinforce specialty in fund management as a top priority to solve out these problems related with public pensions in Korea. Second, it is needed to set retirement pensions to be mandatory for almost all the firms in Korea to substitute for the above lower IRR of public pensions and to recover from the highest elderly poverty ratio among the OECD countries. Third, it is required to discuss about the expansion of tax refund policy application in the individual pension sector and many financial investment products under the correction of current budget control to motivate voluntary subscription for individual pension planning and to stabilize elderly lives of ordinary people in Korea. Fourth, it is required to induce market mechanism in controling price and longevity risk of reverse mortgages for the long-run sustainability.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.115-141
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• 2003

The aim of this paper is to describe a long-term trend toward earlier retirement and its reversal since 1985 in the United States, together with changes in socioeconomic conditions and social-policy programs which have contributed to this new development. The American people's recent propensity to retire at relatively younger ages was mainly a result of secular increase in individual wealth that had made it possible for them to enjoy higher standard of living without their participation in labor market activities at older ages. In addition to the introduction of compulsory retirement system, both social security retirement pension program and corporate pension system have also contributed significantly to the declining retirement age and its reversal around the mid-1980s. This paper pays full attention to the set of social policy programs which are currently being used to sustain the recent reversal in ages at retirement. The basic question to be raised here, however, is about whether or not the U. S. government will ave to continue to implement the social policies and programs used to discourage the elderly from retiring at relatively younger ages in the future. In this paper, it is argued that labor productivity growth and improvement in work attitude prior to retirement will help the elderly find little difficulties in having higher standard of living, despite their further lengthening of life expectancy at birth and post-retirement survival chances, the latter being often called the "third life". Most American people hope that the social-policy programs that have promoted early retirement will remain unchanged in the first part of the 21st century while they will put significant financial burden on their future descendants who have to work in the paid labor market. Taking this observation in consideration, this paper concludes that the U. S. government has to focus more on developing the programs that improve work propensity and labor productivity among the currently working-age population rather than continuing to implement the programs that sustain the recent reversal in retirement ages.ment ages.