Long-Term Care

This study examines the redistributive effects of public pensions on old-age income inequality, testing whether public pensions function as the “great equalizer.” Unlike the well-known alleviating effect of public pensions on old-age poverty, the effects of public pensions on old-age income inequality more generally have been less examined, particularly outside Western countries. Using repeated cross-sectional data of elderly Koreans between 1998 and 2010, we applied Gini coefficient decomposition to measure the impact of various income sources on old-age inequality, particularly focusing on public pensions. Our findings show that, contrary to expectations, public pension benefits have inequality-intensifying effects on old-age income in Korea, even countervailing the alleviating effects of public assistance. This rather surprising result is due to the specific institutional context of the Korean public pension system and suggests that the “structuring” of welfare policies could be as important as their expansion for the elderly, particularly for developing welfare states.     

Build Your Own Pension: Framing Pension Reform and Choice in Newspapers

Recent pension reforms in Norway mean that old-age pensions to a greater extent are a function of adaptations made and decisions made throughout the lifetime. How much you work, who you work for, when you retire, and how you invest will influence your standard of living as an old-age pensioner. This article investigates one important source of information about retirement and pension, namely service journalism in main national newspapers. How is the issue of pension framed in these articles? And what kind of advice is presented by which kind of actors? Findings indicate that service journalism is dominated by pension industry sources, and old-age pension is framed as a function of individual investment choices rather than as citizens’ rights.     

Czechoslovakia’s Interrupted Revolution

Russia’s transition to a market economy has been accompanied by serious, and in some ways unanticipated, disruptions of the existing social welfare system. The social policy dilemma has become a contentious issue in the national political arena. This paper examines the debate on the relationship between social welfare and democratization in post-communist Russia, exploring the case of pensions for the elderly. Although the causes of the pension crisis are complex and rooted in institutional difficulties, the state’s fiscal weakness alone does not explain the difficulties and controversies associated with Russia’s pension crisis. Analysis of the assumptions and principles of pension policy during the Soviet era and perestroika reveals that Russia today is caught between contradictory and competing discourses over citizens’ entitlement to pensions: Is an old-age pension to be considered a reward distributed by a prosperous society, or a basic and inviolable human right? Although the Russian government has used an argument that in effect makes pensions conditional on government resources, citizen and opposition protest has to some extent compelled the Russian government to be increasingly sensitive to demands for guaranteed pensions.     

Innenansichten eines Wohlfahrtsmarkts

The 2001 pension reform act (“Riester reform”) has recast old-age security in Germany by placing more emphasis on private provisions. The new policy draws on markets and competitive structures in social welfare, as done earlier in long-term care and in public utilities. In the social welfare sector in Germany, such privatisation mostly goes hand in hand with a far-reaching “social” regulation of markets. Old-age pensions are the most recent case in point. For the first time, financial markets figure as welfare markets. This is done in the politically most sensitive sector of the German welfare state, old-age security. In theoretical terms, we interpret the change as a structural transformation of German “social capitalism”. Empirically, we investigate the structure of the new welfare market and the attitudes of the providers, based on a survey of all providers of private pensions in Germany. The findings include: (1) Markets can produce the welfare good “income security in old-age” only by way of a complex arrangement of three markets – financial markets, pension markets and markets for financial consultancy services. (2) The pension reform of 2001 has given rise to a new welfare market: an old-age pension market as a distinct sub sector of the wider market for financial investment and saving. The pension market constitutes a new field of business, with new actors, new products and new arenas of competition. The new market is created and shaped by politics. (3) The new private pension market combines market principles with welfare state principles. The providers conceive of their business as contributing to social security, and they recognise that the state sustains and structures the market.     

Using a Political Economy and Life Course Approach to Understand Gendered Pension Provision in the UK

The future sustainability of pensions has gained considerable international attention over recent years. These concerns have been fuelled by increasing longevity and rising pension deficits. In addition there has been further awareness of the extent of female pensioner poverty. In order to explore this situation a suitable analytical framework is required. As pensions received in retirement are dependent on earlier events in individuals’ lives, most notably their employment history, this paper explores the need for a life course approach to examine the gendered nature of pensions in the UK. Initially the life course approach, a key mode of analysis in political economy theory, is defined. It is then used to examine the notion of the changing ‘institution’ of retirement and its subsequent de‐standardisation. Then, linked to the political economy approach, it is utilised to introduce ways in which employment experiences of men and women impact upon inequalities in retirement. Finally, the article concludes that by employing such an approach to understanding pensions it enables a better appreciation of savings behaviour and opportunities.     

A comparison of early retirement pensions in the United States and Russia: the pensions of musicians

Early retirement pensions for particular occupations free national policy to establish the social security early retirement age at a later age that is more appropriate for the population as a whole. This paper focuses on early retirement pensions in the United States and the Russian Federation. While comparing early retirement pensions generally, the paper provides a more detailed discussion of the pensions for musicians. While this is an unconventional group to choose for the study of pensions, study of their pensions yields insights into the principles underlying retirement age policy in the two countries.     

THE EFFECT OF NONCONTRIBUTORY PENSIONS ON SAVING IN MEXICO

This paper examines the effects of noncontributory pension programs at the federal and state levels on Mexican households' saving patterns using micro data from the Mexican Income and Expenditure Survey. We find that the federal program curtails saving among households whose oldest member is either 18–54 or 65–69 years old, possibly through anticipation effects, a decrease in the longevity risk faced by households, and a redistribution of income between households of different generations. Specifically, these households appear to be reallocating income away from saving into human capital investments, like education and health. Generally, state programs have neither significant effects on household saving, nor does the combination of federal and state programs. Finally, with a few exceptions, noncontributory pensions have no significant impact on the saving of households with members 70 years of age or older—individuals eligible for those pensions, plausibly because of their dissaving stage in the lifecycle. (JEL D14, J26, O12, H55)     

A Comparison of Early Retirement Pensions in the United States and Russia

Abstract

Early retirement pensions for particular occupations free national policy to establish the social security early retirement age at a later age that is more appropriate for the population as a whole. This paper focuses on early retirement pensions in the United States and the Russian Federation. While comparing early retirement pensions generally, the paper provides a more detailed discussion of the pensions for musicians. While this is an unconventional group to choose for the study of pensions, study of their pensions yields insights into the principles underlying retirement age policy in the two countries.     

Old age pension reform in China's state-owned enterprises

The old-age pension scheme in China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is experiencing a difficult transition period; in the past, SOEs were responsible for providing retirees with pension benefits. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, the financial position of SOEs deteriorated, making it difficult for them to honor their social welfare commitments. The background of the current pension crisis is examined, and recent attempts to improve the funding of pensions in China's state-owned sector are reviewed, focusing on the period since the State Council issued its "Decision on the Establishment of Unified Pension Insurance" in 1997. The article concludes with a review of priorities for further reform.     

Are Migrants Overrepresented Among Individual Welfare Beneficiaries?

The level of immigrant welfare dependency is the subject of heated debate in the majority of developed countries, which have experienced a significant increase in immigration in recent years. In both Europe and the US, the problem of potential excessive use of social transfers is beginning to bring real policy consequences. This article addresses this issue by presenting a quantitative assessment of welfare receipt in 17 European countries, as well as Yun decomposition of its differences between natives and immigrants. It adds to existing literature by comparing the levels of welfare dependence among EU and non-EU migrants for individual benefits including and excluding pensions, using recent data from EU-SILC. Results suggest that immigrants rely on welfare less often than natives, and receive lower benefits when they do. Those conclusions are reversed, however, when old-age benefits are not considered – especially in the case of non-EU migrants.     

An overview of work, retirement, and pensions in Japan

Work to retirement in Japan is a sequential transition for the most part, and Japan permits mandatory retirement by firms at age 60. But many older people work beyond the age of 60, many more than in other industrialized countries. A number of hypotheses are examined, having to do with pensions, health, opportunity, interest in working, cultural attitudes (including the concept of ikigai), and public policy initiatives (such as employment policy and the Silver Human Resource Centers). Japan's cultural attitudes and existing policies appear to have set Japan on a unique course in considering the aging of its population. To what extent should other nations emulate Japan?     

Does sex age you?

The evolution of aging and longevity has typically been considered to be a resolution of the conflicting demands on an organism to grow, reproduce, and survive. When social or environmental factors change the opportunities for reproduction in a way that affects differently aged individuals, there will be an evolutionary response in the schedule of senescence. This means that social dynamics can have an important effect on aging. A recent study by Berec and Boukal has shown that the dynamics of mating and divorce can also affect observed life spans through their effect on population dynamics. If females cannot find and maintain mating pairs for long enough to replace themselves, the population will become extinct. This puts a lower limit on the levels of longevity that will be observed in nature.     

An Overview of Work,Retirement, and Pensions in Japan

Work to retirement in Japan is a sequential transition for the most part, and Japan permits mandatory retirement by firms at age 60. But many older people work beyond the age of 60, many more than in other industrialized countries. A number of hypotheses are examined, having to do with pensions, health, opportunity, interest in working, cultural attitudes (including the concept of ikigai), and public policy initiatives (such as employment policy and the Silver Human Resource Centers). Japan's cultural attitudes and existing policies appear to have set Japan on a unique course in considering the aging of its population. To what extent should other nations emulate Japan?     

ALTRUISM, DEFICIT POLICIES, AND THE WEALTH OF FUTURE GENERATIONS

Available evidence suggests that the generations of most families are linked by altruistic human capital investment, rather than by altruistic financial transfers. What is the consequence of this distinction for the Ricardian Equivalence Theorem? We use a realistically calibrated overlapping generations model to show that, despite the presence of altruistic human capital transfers, deficit policies are likely to reduce the aftertax wealth of future generations. Furthermore, the majority of households in the current-period population would vote in favor of a deficit-financed tax cut.     

Bequest Motives, Social Security, and Economic Growth

This article conducts a systematic analysis of four bequest motives in a simple model of endogenous growth. It analyzes how bequest motives affect fertility, savings, growth, and the effects of pay-as-you-go Social Security. It is found that altruistic and exchange motives give equivalent outcomes if the discount factors are set the same. The outcome under the joy-of-giving motive may involve a higher bequest ratio, higher saving, and better growth rates than that under altruism. If bequests are accidental, the equilibrium values will depend on the probability of survival. Moreover, the results provide testable implications on bequest motives.     

How Do Workers’ Remittances Respond to Lending Rates?

The literature on migrants’ motivation to remit ranges from self‐interest to altruism where studies analyse the impact from home country interest rates or interest differentials between home and host countries. We reinterpret the interest rate elasticity of remittances as a form of debt‐repayment responsiveness rather than based on opportunistic motivation. Modelling altruistic transfer and debt‐repayment, we find that, for a panel of countries, the long‐run responsiveness of remittances to changes in real lending rates is negative. This suggests that an expansionary (contractionary) monetary policy is most likely to lead to an increase (reduction) in remittances in the long‐run. In contrast to this, the short‐run impact of interest rate changes on remittances is positive.     

Employment Population Age-Share Differences: An International Comparison of the Economic Impact of Population Aging

International comparisons of the economic impact of population aging across nations can give valuable insights regarding which policies are most effective in addressing aging-related economic issues. Traditional old-age dependency ratios, by not accounting for differences in labor force participation rates, can be misleading. A new measure, the difference between an age group's share of total employment and its share of the total adult population, is developed and shown to be empirically sensitive to different policy actions. The analysis is built upon readily available and comparable International Labour Organization age-group data on population and labor force participation rates.     

Extending private pension coverage in a middle-income country: the case of Brazil

Government policies can play an important role in the development of private pensions. These policies can be divided into three groups: (1) policies that are essential to providing a favorable economic environment for pensions; (2) policies that encourage the development of private pensions, given that a favorable economic environment for them exists; and (3) policies that deal with weaknesses of private pension systems. While the policies discussed are generally applicable for middle-income countries, the economic and legal environments for pensions differ across countries. This article focuses in particular on the situation in Brazil.     

再论深化养老保险制度改革问题

对当前深化养老保险制度改革过程中出现的新问题,建议:一是每年"两会"期间公布本年度养老金增长速度及其基数,增长基数应与"十二五"规划规定的两个"同步"靠拢;二是反对养老保险制度改革中的新平均主义倾向,坚持劳动差别,建立多劳多得、多缴多得、长缴多得的激励机制;三是坚持优化结构,逐步建立基本养老金为主体的多层次养老保险制度;四是尽快建立社保基金国家财政预算拨款制度.     

Complementarity of pensions and training under multiemployer plans

We compare firmoptimizing and institutional models of labor contracts to investigate how different types of pension plans affect employee training. Unlike previous stud-ies, we consider an expanded voice model of training and pension coverage in which worker and union preferences feed back on firm decisions, and we test for this bidi-rectional causality between pensions and training. A standard view is that firms pro-vide pensions to optimize their training costs. However, when pension coverage is treated as endogenous in a twostage least squares regression (the data are merged 1991 CPS samples), pensions have a negative effect on training. In contrast, when the pension is a definedbenefit, multiemployer plan, training and pensions are comple-ments, consistent with both optimizing and institutional models. We are grateful for excellent research assistance from Michael Ash, Bhashkar Mazumder, and Judith Ruha and for suggestions from Dale Belman, David Card, B.J. Lee, David MacPherson, and John Turner.