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This paper compares different fiscal integration schemes on the basis of their ability to finance public investments and resilience to debt distress and contagion. Complete integration schemes, where a central authority chooses the level of public investments with productivity-enhancing externalities across different jurisdictions, are shown to be superior to incomplete integration schemes, where member governments choose public investments unilaterally. As a result, equilibrium income is greater for citizens of member states under a complete integration scheme. Moreover, complete integration schemes are shown to be more resilient to idiosyncratic shocks and more effective in limiting contagion of debt distress. This is mainly because the central authority can credibly borrow more without risking default than member states taken together can and it can "transfer resilience" across them if needed. These findings inform discussions on structural aspects of secular stagnation in Europe by emphasizing a potential challenge in the institutional design of fiscal responsibilities.

Access to Finance --- Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress --- Contagion --- Debt Markets --- Economic Theory & Research --- Emerging Markets --- Federalism --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Integration --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Private Sector Development --- Sovereign Debt

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The role of inherited wealth in modern economies has increasingly come under scrutiny. This study presents one of the first attempts to shed light on how demographic aging could shape this role. It shows that, in the absence of retirement annuities, or for a given level of annuitization, both increasing longevity and decreasing fertility should reduce the inherited share of total wealth in a given economy. Thus, aging is not likely to explain a recent surge in this share in some advanced economies. Shrinking retirement annuities, however, could offset and potentially reverse these effects. The paper also shows that aging could increase the size of individual bequests vis-a-vis real wages. However, these bequests will be more unequally distributed if aging is driven by a drop in fertility. In comparison, the effect of increasing longevity on their distribution in non-monotonic.

Environment --- Finance and financial sector development --- Health, nutrition and population --- Macroeconomics and economic growth --- Pensions & retirement systems --- Social protections and labor

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This paper analyzes the impact of aging on capital accumulation and welfare in a country with a sizable unfunded social security system. Using a two-period overlapping generation model with endogenous retirement decisions, the paper shows that the type of aging and the type of unfunded social security system are important in understanding this impact. The analysis compares two types of demographic changes, declining fertility and increasing longevity; three types of pensions, defined contributions, defined benefits, and defined annuities; as well as mandatory and optimal retirement systems to investigate the differences in implications of aging.

Aging --- Economic theory & research --- Emerging markets --- Health, nutrition and population --- Labor policies --- Macroeconomics and economic growth --- Pensions & retirement systems --- Population policies --- Private sector development --- Public finance sustainability --- Social protections and labor --- Social security

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This paper analyzes the impact of aging on capital accumulation and welfare in a country with a sizable unfunded social security system. Using a two-period overlapping generation model with endogenous retirement decisions, the paper shows that the type of aging and the type of unfunded social security system are important in understanding this impact. The analysis compares two types of demographic changes, declining fertility and increasing longevity; three types of pensions, defined contributions, defined benefits, and defined annuities; as well as mandatory and optimal retirement systems to investigate the differences in implications of aging.

Aging --- Economic theory & research --- Emerging markets --- Health, nutrition and population --- Labor policies --- Macroeconomics and economic growth --- Pensions & retirement systems --- Population policies --- Private sector development --- Public finance sustainability --- Social protections and labor --- Social security

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In 1991, thousands of South Sudanese boys walked into Kenya. Having fled war in their own countries, about 20 thousand of these "lost boys" first tried taking refuge in Ethiopia. With no real options to stay, many were killed on their walk back to South Sudan or while attempting to swim the crocodile infested River Gilo, before entering Kenya. Between 7 thousand and 10 thousand were estimated to have made it alive to Kenya at that time, with no possessions besides the clothes on their back. The arrival of these "lost boys" eventually transformed how the Kenyan Government approached the issue of refugees. The Government had allowed for the integration of arriving refugees into the Kenyan population up until that point. The arrival of these "lost boys" marked the beginning of the encampment strategy in Kenya. From that point onwards, the refugee screening process was turned over from the Kenyan government to the United Nations High Commission for Refugess (UNHCR) . The boys were initially housed in a temporary camp located closer to the Sudanese border, in the town of Lokichogio. In June of 1002, the camp was relocated farther south to Kakuma Town, in the central Turkana region, where it has remained since. Flash-forward 35 years, with more than 180 thousand refuges, the Kakuma Refugee Camp stands as one of the largest urban settlements on the plains of Turkana. The camp currently houses individuals from different nationalities, primarily Sudanese, Somalis and Ethiopians. There is a significant internal economy of goods and services, bolstered by the goods (especially food) and public services provided by international organizations.

Access of Poor to Social Services --- Armed Conflict --- Conflict and Development --- Economic Management --- Human Migrations & Resettlements --- Post Conflict Reconstruction --- Poverty Reduction --- Refugees --- Services & Transfers to Poor --- Social Development