Image: UNSW Business School building with CEPAR and UNSW logos
Over 100 representatives from the wider research community, government and industry participated in the hybrid held 28th Colloquium on Pensions and Retirement Research in December, which was co-hosted by CEPAR and the School of Risk & Actuarial Studies in the UNSW Business School.
The Colloquium is a unique annual event which brings together academics, government and industry representatives to discuss the latest research on pensions, superannuation and retirement.
This year, the Colloquium included high-level talks and presentations on pensions, superannuation and retirement in a post-COVID-19 world, including a plenary talk on a six-component integrated approach to addressing the retirement funding challenge, by Nobel Prize winner Professor Robert C. Merton of the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Professor Merton offered an integrated approach to addressing the global retirement funding challenge, in particular in light of the coronavirus shock that has created an unprecedented impact on lifetime income and consumption.
Especially topical was a Panel focused on the Australian Government's Retirement Income Review. The Panel was chaired by CEPAR Advisory Board Chair Marc de Cure, Adjunct Professor at UNSW Business School, and included panellists Review Commissioner Professor Deborah Ralston, Aware Super CEO Deanne Stewart, Household Capital CEO Joshua Funder and CEPAR Director John Piggott.
Further Colloquium sessions covered the impact of COVID-19; retirement incomes, savings and outcomes; investment strategies; housing assets in retirement; pension and fiscal policies; mortality; ageing; and funding challenges and decisions.
CEPAR PhD Candidate Cheng Wan was awarded a prize for the Best PhD Paper Presentation on Optimal Portfolio Choice with Longevity and Health Insurance: A Developing Country Context.
The 28th Annual Colloquium of Pensions and Retirement Research also hosted a special online session on Pensions and COVID-19: The Global Experience, supported by the International Pension Research Association (IPRA), on December 14, 2020.
Papers submitted to the Colloquium and the IPRA special session will be considered for inclusion in a Special Issue of the Journal of Pension Economics & Finance on Pensions and COVID-19.
Presentation slides are available online:
Recordings of Professor Robert C. Merton's and other presenters are available online.