institute of economic affairs

IEA Empowerment Through Savings Programme

The IEA Empowerment Through Savings Programme aims to alert opinion formers and leaders to the potential problems of the ageing population, and provide them with a framework solution, which will create wealth (in particular for the poor), facilitate the spread of the free market and empower older members of society.

The programme is a research project in five distinct parts:

1. An examination of the extent of the ageing population problem in both the developed world and amongst less developed countries (“LDCs”).
2. A review of current and historical solutions to income provision in old age.
3. The development of a framework that organisations (for example governments, corporations, inter-governmental organisations) could use to develop pensions policy whilst nurturing economic freedom and personal responsibility and well-being.
4. The development through a case study of a model framework to illustrate how the theoretical ideas can be implemented in practice and to show how they can benefit the poor.
5. The dissemination of the project’s findings using the IEA’s publications, seminar and conference programmes.

The project will be completed in 2008.

The Project is led by Professor Philip Booth Editorial and Programme Director, IEA and Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at Cass Business School and coordinated by Coordinator: Nick Silver FIA Director of Silver Actuarial Services and Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School. Oskari Juurikkala is the full-time researcher on the programme.

The Programme is funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

The IEA will publish a monograph and a special edition of our journal, Economic Affairs in 2008. We have also made available on this page interim findings of the project and other recent IEA pensions publications.

As well as the IEA publications listed at the bottom of the page, there are also articles related to the project published in other journals and by other think tanks listed below:

Do state social security systems discourage people from having children? See Oskari Juurikkala's article, "Making kids worthless: social security's contribution to the fertility crisis" at www.mises.org.

Pensions problems in developed and developing countries are analysed in Oskari Juurikkala's monograph for the Acton Institute, "Pensions, Population and Prosperity". In both developed and developing nations, old age security is a concern of the utmost importance. Wealthy nations face ailing government pension systems, while less developed nations struggle to construct viable mechanisms for assisting the needy elderly. In this unique and provocative monograph, Oskari Juurikkala, fully cogniscent of these differences and drawing on the wisdom of the Christian social tradition, argues that the solution for both groups of nations lies in the same direction - away from reliance on the state and toward strong familial and other private networks. See The Acton Institute.

Institute of Economic Affairs, 2 Lord North Street, Westminster, London, SW1P 3LB | tel: 020 7799 8900 | fax: 020 7799 2137 | email: iea@iea.org.uk

site by politicos design: campaigning online with political & mp websites

issues

Development

Economic theory

Education

Environment and Transport

Ethics

European Union

Fiscal policy

IEA

Industry & privatisation

International

Labour

Monetary policy

Regulation

Trade

Welfare