{"title":"Income Disparity, Inequity Aversion and the Design of the Healthcare System","authors":"J. Leach","doi":"10.1111/j.1467-9442.2009.01564.x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9442.2009.01564.x","url":null,"abstract":"An ex post social welfare function is used to evaluate alternative healthcare systems. If a society is averse to inequality and there is some income disparity, social welfare under private healthcare insurance is sometimes higher and sometimes lower than social welfare under public healthcare. However, a third system - public healthcare with the option to purchase supplemental healthcare insurance - is always socially preferred to private healthcare insurance. Moreover, it is either socially preferred to public healthcare or equivalent to it.","PeriodicalId":316250,"journal":{"name":"SRPN: Social Economics (Topic)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131238968","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":"Migration Effects of Welfare Benefit Reform","authors":"Karin Edmark","doi":"10.1111/j.1467-9442.2009.01574.x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9442.2009.01574.x","url":null,"abstract":"This study tests for a migration response to the implementation of stricter rules for receiving welfare benefits (means-tested social assistance for individuals who lack sufficient work-related income), in the form of mandatory participation in activation programmes in Stockholm town districts. The results give no indications that activation programmes affect the moving choices of recipients of welfare benefits.","PeriodicalId":316250,"journal":{"name":"SRPN: Social Economics (Topic)","volume":"123 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116202125","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":"Demographic Uncertainty and Welfare in a Life-Cycle Model Under Alternative Public Pension Systems","authors":"M. Rahman","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1270643","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1270643","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, I analyze consumption, aggregate savings,output and welfare implications of …ve dierent social security arragements whenever there is demographic uncertanity. Following Bohn(2002), I analyze the eect of an uncetain population growth in an extended version of a modi…ed Life-cycle model developed by Gertler(1999). Population growth dampens savings and output under all arrangements. Pay-as-you-go-De…ned Bene…t system appears to fare better than all other alternatives, falling short of the private annuity market with no pension system. But social security in general increases social welfare, with Fully Funded systems faring the best. Thus there appears to be a clear tradeobewteen growth and social welfare. The social security system also reduces the volatility of the economy.","PeriodicalId":316250,"journal":{"name":"SRPN: Social Economics (Topic)","volume":"51 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116451559","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":"Critical Review of Literature on the Factors Pertaining to Financial Sustainability of Social Security Schemes","authors":"W. Akwimbi","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1187842","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1187842","url":null,"abstract":"The sustained generation of sufficient funds to cater for pension benefits and other social security needs of retirees remains the principal challenge to the financial viability of social security schemes in most countries today. This has particularly been exacerbated by the sharp increase in the aging population requiring social security support relative to the ratio of those workers contributing to the pension fund. It has lead to the deterioration of the financial position of public retirement programs and thus putting the social security schemes under severe pressure and creating uncertainty on their future. Literature reviewed on financial sustainability of social security schemes indicates that in both developed countries and emerging market economies (EME), the financial challenges facing social security schemes are mainly due to inadequate regulatory capacity, imprudent investment, poor corporate governance and macroeconomic instability. In addition high overheads and administrative costs, limited coverage and design oversights particularly the structuring of the schemes either as pay as you go (PAYG), funded, defined contribution or defined benefit systems. Studies in this area have however, not weighed and ranked these factors on the basis of their significance to financial sustainability of the respective social security schemes they examined. Analysis undertaken in this paper shows that troubled social security schemes require a combination of measures to address the issues that undermine their financial position and sustainability. This include initiating parametric reforms, introduction of a multi-pillar pension system, implementation of good corporate governance and investment practices, reforming the regulatory and institutional framework and instituting various pension and economic reforms among others. It is important to note that nearly all studies on social security issues were carried out in developed countries. The paper nevertheless, shows that minimal research has been undertaken in this field in most developing countries. Research in this critical area of finance will therefore help expand the knowledge base in the field, especially in African countries and provide a basis for comparison with work done in other countries in addition to contributing to improved policy formulation and management.","PeriodicalId":316250,"journal":{"name":"SRPN: Social Economics (Topic)","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127263369","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":"When Corruption Begets Corruption: Welfare Analysis and the Role of Bureaucratic Wages Under Multiple Equilibria","authors":"Pushan Dutt","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.1087229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1087229","url":null,"abstract":"The paper presents some empirical puzzles in the relationship between bureaucratic wages and corruption levels, and attempts to reconcile them within a general equilibrium framework that leads to multiple equilibria in the incidence of corruption. In the presence of such multiple equilibria, the relationship between bureaucratic wages and corruption is no longer monotonic, and much more complex than detailed by previous theoretical and empirical research. Further, a welfare analysis shows that social welfare is decreasing in the incidence of corruption, across such equilibria.","PeriodicalId":316250,"journal":{"name":"SRPN: Social Economics (Topic)","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122431285","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":"Basic Income, Policy and Welfare State","authors":"Felice Russo","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.897663","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.897663","url":null,"abstract":"This paper offers some possible definitions, purposes and motivations for a system of income support defined by the presence of a Basic Income. In particular, it discusses the motivations assigning to this income transfer programme an important role for Welfare State reform. After a survey of the main proposals in the literature, where there is room to highlight the different rationales, objectives, and qualifications of the Basic Income, some relevant connections between two alternative framework of policy and two alternative Welfare State - Basic Income regimes are presented and described. Finally, it proposes a first definition of one of them, that is, the regime described by a pure and universal Basic Income vis-a-vis to a policy strategy characterised also by the presence of fundamental uncertainty (i.e., not conform to the usual notion of risk).","PeriodicalId":316250,"journal":{"name":"SRPN: Social Economics (Topic)","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124502599","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":"Welfare Capitalism Around the World","authors":"C. Aspalter","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.2665529","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2665529","url":null,"abstract":"This book offers a wide selection of country studies on different types of welfare capitalism from an real-typical point of view. It has been one of the few books ever to cover a great deal of welfare state system from around the world, depicting monumentally different ways in conceiving and developing different models of welfare capitalism, be it Singapore or Hong Kong, New Zealand or Canada, the US or the UK, Switzerland, Germany, France, Denmark or Sweden, Italy or Israel, Korea or Japan, or even countries in Latin America. The authors contributing to this book count to the who is who in welfare state comparison worldwide. Hence, this book is a vital source book, a must read and a must have for every social policy expert, public policy expert, and economist alike.","PeriodicalId":316250,"journal":{"name":"SRPN: Social Economics (Topic)","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2003-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132361497","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":"Allocating Payroll Tax Revenue to Personal Retirement Accounts to Maintain Social Security Benefits and the Payroll Tax Rate","authors":"M. Feldstein, Andrew A. Samwick","doi":"10.3386/W7767","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3386/W7767","url":null,"abstract":"In an earlier paper we analyzed a method of combining traditional tax financed pay-as-you-go Social Security benefits with annuities financed by Personal Retirement Accounts. We showed that such a combination could maintain the level of retirement income projected in current Social Security law while avoiding a future increase in the payroll tax rate. The current paper extends the earlier analysis in four ways: (1) We now specify that the funds deposited in the Personal Retirement Accounts come from allocating 2 percent of the 12.4 percent payroll tax instead of being additional funds provided from outside the system. (2) We discuss the effects of the uncertain return on investment based annuities. (3) We provide estimates of the cost of permitting bequests if individuals die either before retirement or during the first twenty years after retirement. (4) We update the statistical basis for our estimates to be consistent with the 2000 Social Security Trustees Report. Our analysis shows that a program of Personal Retirement Accounts funded by allocating 2 percent of the 12.4 percent payroll tax collections can maintain the retirement income projected in current law while avoiding any increase in the 12.4 percent payroll tax. The combination of the higher return on the assets in the Personal Retirement Accounts and the use of the additional corporate profits taxes that result from the increased national saving in Personal Retirement Accounts is sufficient to maintain the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund even though the tax payments to the fund are reduced from 12.4 percent of taxable payroll to 10.4 percent of taxable payroll. Although there is a period of years when the Trust Fund must borrow, it is able to repay this borrowing with interest out of future tax collections. In the long run, the Trust Fund becomes very large, implying that it would be possible to reduce the payroll tax further or to increase retirement incomes above the levels projected in current law.","PeriodicalId":316250,"journal":{"name":"SRPN: Social Economics (Topic)","volume":"284 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2000-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133339572","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 Italian Social Protection System: The Poverty of Welfare","authors":"M. Rostagno, Francesca Utili","doi":"10.5089/9781451849561.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451849561.001","url":null,"abstract":"Italy`s system of social protection has come under criticism for being fragmented and excessively skewed toward pensioners and \"insiders.\" After setting up a consolidated presentation of the social security accounts, this paper provides an empirical assessment of the effectiveness of the welfare system, relying on a survey of households` incomes and wealth. It concludes that, owing to ill-designed targeting mechanisms, less than a quarter of total spending on the welfare instruments under review accrues to families whose own resources fall short of the poverty line. The paper then proposes a new means-testing formula.","PeriodicalId":316250,"journal":{"name":"SRPN: Social Economics (Topic)","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124322731","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":"Does Welfare Play Any Role in Female Headship Decisions?","authors":"H. Hoynes","doi":"10.1016/S0047-2727(97)00022-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2727(97)00022-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":316250,"journal":{"name":"SRPN: Social Economics (Topic)","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1995-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125662564","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}