The 2015 welfare reform of the National Basic Livelihood Security System in South Korea: Effects on economic outcomes

In July 2015, South Korea’s National Basic Livelihood Security System (NBLSS) was reformed for the purposes of eliminating welfare blind spots and reducing poverty. The reform is expected to affect the recipients’ economic behaviours and choices. In this study, we used changes in benefits and eligibility for the NBLSS under the customised benefit system to identify the effects of the change in the NBLSS on a proposed set of economic outcomes – income, labour supply, consumption, savings, poverty reduction. To estimate the effects, we used data from the 10th–12th waves of the Korea Welfare Panel Study and employed a difference‐in‐differences framework integrated with the propensity scores. We found that the NBLSS helps the poor to reduce financial and material hardships through income and consumption increments, but that it does not provide disincentives to the recipients from participating in the labour market or from saving.     

Material hardship and 529 college savings plan participation: The mitigating effects of Child Development Accounts

Experience of material hardship can adversely affect a family’s ability to make long-term investments in children’s development. We examine whether material hardship is associated with one indicator of such investments: participation in a tax-advantaged college savings plan (529 plan). Data for this study come from the SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK) experiment, an intervention that offers Child Development Accounts with financial incentives to encourage the accumulation of college savings for children from the time of their birth. Results show that material hardship is negatively associated with 529-plan participation, and this association varies by treatment status. At all levels of material hardship, treatment-group mothers are more likely to hold accounts than control-group mothers. These findings suggest that CDAs can be a useful policy tool to support families’ financial preparation for college.     

中国老年人储蓄对家庭消费的影响 ——基于CHARLS面板数据的分析

在我国快速老龄化和居民储蓄率居高不下的背景下,结合老年人储蓄偏好和消费特点,构建家庭消费计量分析模型,文章利用CHARLS2011、2013、2015年微观跟踪调查数据,采用工具变量—随机效应模型划分年龄层次和消费类别逐级估计,重点考察老年人储蓄对其家庭消费的影响。研究表明,老年人储蓄水平越高,对家庭消费的促进能力就越强;分城乡来看,农村老年人储蓄对家庭消费的贡献更大;按年龄组别来看,中、低龄老年人储蓄对家庭消费的影响显著,高龄老年人储蓄对家庭消费的影响不显著;按消费类别看,老年人储蓄偏重于家庭基本生活、教育文化、健康等刚性消费支出,城镇和农村老年人储蓄对不同消费类别影响的差异主要表现在日常支出、医疗保健和耐用消费品等方面。此外,研究还发现,老年人拥有房产对家庭消费具有非常明显的提振作用,家庭收入和老年人借贷对家庭消费的贡献显著。     

遗产动机对中国老年家庭储蓄率的影响

中国人口老龄化问题日益凸显,老年家庭储蓄率居高不下,标准生命周期假说理论已无法解释。基于中国家庭金融调查数据,从遗产动机视角分析老年家庭高储蓄率现象。研究结果表明,中国老年家庭遗产动机显著提升家庭储蓄率,遗产动机使得老年家庭储蓄率水平显著提高5%—10%左右。进一步研究发现,相比较于城市家庭,遗产动机对农村家庭储蓄影响显著;相对于高等财富家庭而言,遗产动机显著促进中低财富家庭储蓄率水平,说明“未富先老”使得老年家庭有更强的遗产动机进行储蓄;对于家庭不同生活状况的子女,遗产动机显著提升子女体制外工作和子女教育水平低的老年家庭储蓄率,表明中国老年家庭利他主义的遗产动机较强。本文为理解中国老年家庭的高储蓄提供了新的视角,可以为政府相关部门制定政策提供参考。     

中国城镇居民家庭储蓄水平队列效应分析

利用中国家庭收入调查（ CHIP）数据对城镇居民家庭的储蓄率进行了队列效应的实证研究。分析结果表明，属于不同队列的城镇家庭在储蓄水平上都呈现出相似的“U”型年龄分布，即中年家庭（40－50岁）储蓄率低，年轻家庭（20－40岁）和退休家庭储蓄率较高，这一现象与其他国家的实证研究结果有显著不同。本文认为，中国城镇居民储蓄率的“U”型年龄分布主要是由人口与经济的高速增长带来的：人口高速增长带来的队列规模效应使得面对更大竞争压力的年轻人口储蓄率较高，而经济水平持续增长带来的消费水平增长预期使得接近退休家庭储蓄水平重新上升。     

中国企业储蓄率变动原因探析

我国国民储蓄率一直居高不下,其中企业部门的储蓄率变动逐渐引起人们的关注。研究发现,国民储蓄率自2008年增势减缓,主要因为企业部门储蓄率出现下降,企业支付的劳动者报酬、财产支出以及融资渠道的变化是企业储蓄变动的主要原因。进一步通过E-G协整法探究企业储蓄率对国民经济、投资率的影响,发现企业部门对经济发展和投资水平起到积极作用。最后,根据企业部门的国民地位和储蓄率变动趋势给出密切关注企业储蓄率、合理降低居民储蓄率的相关建议。     

预防性储蓄动机强度的地区差异分析——基于海南省农村居民的研究（1990—2008）

采用Dnyna的预防性储蓄模型和固定效应-工具变量法（FE-IV）对海南省农村居民1990—2008年的预防性储蓄动机强度及其地区差异进行了估计。研究发现：1.海南省农村居民存在明显的预防性储蓄动机,强度高于海南省城镇居民的水平,但远低于全国农村居民的平均水平;2.海南省不同收入地区的农村居民的预防性储蓄动机强度差别不大,没有出现＂居民收入越低,预防性储蓄动机越强＂的规律;3.提高人均GDP水平和城镇化率都不能有效降低海南省农村居民的预防性储蓄水平。     

Perceived facilitators and barriers to saving among low-income youth

Asset-based social welfare programs focus on helping low- to moderate-income citizens to accumulate wealth in the form of homeownership, savings, small businesses, and higher education. Individual development accounts, savings accounts in which account holders’ deposits are matched, are a vehicle often used in these programs. In a national demonstration of individual development accounts for children (children's savings accounts), low-income youth were interviewed to learn what helped them to save and what made it difficult to save. We describe the young people's perceptions of these factors, and conclude with implications for policy and program design.     

邮政储蓄银行小额信贷之路初探

邮政储蓄银行已正式挂牌,在社区银行定位的同时被委以服务于农村的重任。组建邮政储蓄银行,实施邮政储弩金融业务的专业化经营不仅符合国际邮政储蓄金融制度变革的潮流,而且对推动我国金融体制改革的深化,进一步完善我国金融市场的建设具有十分积极的意义。本文对邮政储蓄银行成立后开展小额信贷业务的可行性、必要性及经营战略进行了一些探索,以期对新成立的邮政储蓄银行有所借鉴。     

Temptation and Taxation

We study optimal taxation when consumers have temptation and self‐control problems. Embedding the class of preferences developed by Gul and Pesendorfer into a standard macroeconomic setting, we first prove, in a two‐period model, that the optimal policy is to subsidize savings when consumers are tempted by “excessive” impatience. The savings subsidy improves welfare because it makes succumbing to temptation less attractive. We then study an economy with a long but finite horizon which nests, as a special case, the Phelps–Pollak–Laibson multiple‐selves model (thereby providing guidance on how to evaluate welfare in this model). We prove that when period utility is logarithmic, the optimal savings subsidies increase over time for any finite horizon. Moreover, as the horizon grows large, the optimal policy prescribes a constant subsidy, in contrast to the well known Chamley–Judd result.