{"title":"Organizing Old Age Pensions for India's Informal Workers: A Case Study of a Sector-Driven Approach","authors":"M. Narayana","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3155414","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3155414","url":null,"abstract":"About 88 percent of India’s total labor force is composed of informal (officially labeled “unorganized”) workers. As many as 388 million such workers lack old age income security by way of a pension system. The Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is the latest contributory, national-level old age pension scheme for unorganized workers, with an entry age of 18–40 years. In other words, all current unorganized workers above the age of 40 are excluded. How could a national pension system viably guarantee equal pension benefits to all current unorganized workers? This paper considers how such a system might work by offering a case study of a non-contributory pension scheme for building and other construction workers in Karnataka State, India. The results indicate that this state-level pension scheme, fully funded by sector-specific receipts, is financially viable and sustainable with high levels of coverage and adequacy. The robustness of these results is shown via sensitivity analyses of discount rates, inflation rates, and growth rates of specific purpose tax collections. Additional analyses outline the scenarios under which pension benefits could be extended to all informal workers in the sector studied.","PeriodicalId":244040,"journal":{"name":"Stanford Asia Health Policy Program Research Paper Series","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130411579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effect of Family-Friendly Policies on Fertility and Maternal Labor Supply","authors":"N. Nagase","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2965185","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2965185","url":null,"abstract":"Low fertility is a major policy focus in Japan. Many policies, such as an increase in replacement allowances during parental leave, were rolled out during the 1990s and early 2000s with little evidence that they had any effect on fertility or labor supply. This study assesses the impact of policies designed to promote a family-friendly work culture on childbirth and labor supply from the mid-2000s on. The causal effects are identified by investigating two reform policies targeted at two different sizes of firms. The paper contributes to the literature on laws that impact organizational culture in a society where both gender and organizational norms are strong. The short-hour option in Japan significantly increased childbirth among working women who had been childless. The intent to give birth also increased among childless women at the treated firms, and there was an increased likelihood of women taking up permanent employment at reduced hours following their first childbirth. The policy effect was not significant for second or third births.","PeriodicalId":244040,"journal":{"name":"Stanford Asia Health Policy Program Research Paper Series","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126071235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}