Employers and the Management of Retirement

In the UK early withdrawal from the labour market is seen as a risk and a cost, worsening the dependency ratio, raising public and private pension costs and threatening additional welfare expenditure over the longer term. Explanations of the retirement process have focused on the welfare state and the impact of pensions and other social security policies. This paper argues that a missing actor in these accounts is the employing organization. Early retirement in the UK has been predominantly driven by the labour requirements of employers rather than state policies to encourage older workers to take early retirement. There is a case for arguing that significant change in retirement behaviour in the UK will come primarily from the modification of employers’ policies. This research is a case study of three employers: one public‐sector and two commercial. It examines the dynamics of the retirement decision. This paper reports the public‐sector case. The findings indicate that employers, in order to reduce their pensions liabilities and stem the cost of early retirement, are trying to regain control of the retirement process. The employees interviewed felt they experienced little choice concerning their retirement, had limited knowledge of the options open to them and found pensions complicated and confusing.     

Redefining Welfare: Australian Social Policy and Practice

The present paper outlines and analyzes Australia's welfare reform policies as they have been implemented over the past decade. While there have been numerous social policy initiatives over this period, welfare reform provides an interesting site for analysis and review. This suite of policies and programs is of particular importance from several standpoints. First, its target groups – those needing income security assistance, including the unemployed, people with disabilities, and single parents – are historically and traditionally of concern to social work and social welfare. Second, welfare reform policies have had significant impact on social welfare agencies, and the social workers and welfare workers employed in them. Finally, welfare reform has had a wider impact on inequality in Australia and our attitudes to those in need. This paper first provides a brief overview of the context of Australian social policy and welfare, its origins and current situation. It then outlines the key operational elements of welfare reform and how it has been implemented. The third section of the paper offers a critical analysis of these policies and programs and finally poses some questions and issues requiring further discussion and research.     

The Retirement Provisions in China,Hong Kong,Singapore and Taiwan: Perspectives on Policy Inputs and Social Outputs

This paper aims to develop an integrated policy index system using a Surface Measure of Overall Performance (SMOP) approach to comprehensively evaluate and compare the policy input and social output of the retirement payment system in urban and rural China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. With this, a tool may be developed to help insightfully examine the old‐age income policies and appropriately, and perhaps theoretically in the future, categorize the types of retirement provisions or social security policies as a whole in the East and West. The results indicate that, particularly in urban China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, a low level of de‐familization and medium and high levels of gender equality are the common features of these five pensions in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Furthermore, it is found that the retirement provisions in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan can well be divided into two groups based on the level of pension right protection and illustrate different characteristics between them accordingly. In addition, policy implications and suggestions for further reforms of these retirement payment schemes are elaborated in the light of the findings of this policy index system.     

Review Article: Perspectives on Australian Social Policy

Books reviewed in this article:
B. Cheers Welfare Bushed: Social Care in Rural Australia
A.Jamrozik and L. Nocella The Sociology of Social Problems: Theoretical Perspectives and Methods of Intervention
R. Hugman Social Welfare and Social Value
J. S. O'Connor, A. S.Orloff and S. Shaver States, Markets, Families: Gender, Liberalism and Social Policy in Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the United States     

汉代官员的休假与退休制度

官员为政期间的正常休假和年老退休 ,是我国自古至今官员所享受的基本福利待遇和国家对官员的一项管理制度 ,这两项制度的正式形成和普遍推广实行 ,始于汉代。正是这两项制度的普遍推行 ,才从人事管理制度方面保证了国家机器的正常运转和政治、经济等方面的蓬勃发展。     

Retirement timing in Europe: The influence of individual work and life factors

This study considers the rational choice and life course theories to predict European retirement timing. It is relevant to compare men's and women's retirement decisions to determine whether they are influenced by work or by the interplay between work and familial, educational, and leisure life. An event history analysis of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) suggests that work factors have a greater impact on European women's retirement timing than they do for men and that both men's and women's retirement timing is influenced by the interplay of work and life.     

Social Policy at the 2004 Election

Social policy appeared to be a key battleground at the 2004 Australian Federal election. Opposition Leader Latham announced major policies on Medicare, family support and taxation, and schools funding during the election campaign. Using sample survey data from the Australian Election Study 2004, this paper analyses how these policies may have influenced voters. In brief, although a significant proportion of electors identified these issues as being extremely important to them when they were deciding about how to vote, many made up their mind about how to vote around the time of the announcement of the election or before. This mitigated the potential effect that these major policies could have on the election outcome. Nevertheless, these policies were important and Labor had a significant policy advantage amongst those who were late deciders about how to cast their vote.     

积极财政政策下的税收政策取向

积极财政政策作为我国近期宏观调控经济的基本政策,已取得了一定效益.我国继续实施积极的财政政策还有一定的空间和时间,但仅以增发国债为主的积极财政政策有其局限性,而减税在弥补扩大投资的局限性方面有不可替代的作用.减税政策是"十五"期间国民经济发展的客观需要,应保持相对长期的稳定性,并应遵循一定的原则.     

The Revolution that Faltered: Two Decades of Reform of Australia's Retirement Income System

In the 1980s, Australia's retirement income system became the subject of ongoing reform. A number of the reform objectives were quite revolutionary but some remain much further from realization than was expected, with major consequences for future retirees. In this sense, Australia's retirement income revolution has faltered. This paper (1) outlines the main features of Australia's retirement income system prior to the 1980s, (2) presents the reform objectives and explains the sense in which they were "revolutionary", (3) describes some of the major changes, their achievements, and how and why a number remain further from realization than expected, (4) considers two more recent objectives and (5) outlines the challenges that remain.     

人口老龄化与养老保障政策应对研究——基于多元社会政策建构视野

人口老龄化趋势是我国人口结构转变的一个突出现象。人口老龄化问题的突现,势必对养老保障压力提出了新的挑战,同时也会影响国家对养老政策的调整。本文基于＂人口年龄结构—国民经济因素—社会因素—养老政策＂综合分析模型,提出了养老保障政策分析的框架。本文以人口结构转变为切入点,描述了人口老龄化趋势,以及由此引发的国家系统养老保障以及公民社会养老保障挑战。为应对这些挑战,本文基于综合分析模型和现代国家治理结构特点,提出了相应的应对策略。本文认为,只有整体性福利制度构建,才能确保在国民经济发展、人口老龄化趋势与社会稳定之间取得动态平衡。     

改革开放前新中国土地政策的历史演变

近年来有关改革开放前新中国土地政策发展演变的研究日见升温。为进一步推动这一工作,将改革开放前1949年-1978年土地政策划分为新中国成立初期、全面建设社会主义时期、文化大革命时期、徘徊时期等四个阶段,将有助于我们的分析与探讨。     

Tensions and contradictions in Australian social policy reform: compulsory Income Management and the National Disability Insurance Scheme

This paper explores contemporary contradictions and tensions in Australian social policy principles and governmental practices that are being used to drive behavioural change, such as compulsory income management. By means of compulsory income management the Australian Government determines how certain categories of income support recipients can spend their payments through the practice of quarantining a proportion of that payment. In this process some groups in the community, particularly young unemployed people and Indigenous Australians, are being portrayed as requiring a paternalistic push in order to make responsible choices. The poverty experienced by some groups of income support recipients appears to be seen as a consequence of poor spending patterns rather than economic and social inequalities. By contrast, Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been constructed as a person centred system of support that recognises the importance of both human agency and structural investment to expand personal choices and control. Here we look at the rationale guiding these developments to explore the tensions and contradictions in social policy more broadly, identifying what would be required if governments sought to promote greater autonomy, dignity and respect for people receiving income support payments in Australia.     

论北京市城市生活垃圾处理的产业政策

随着城市经济的迅速发展,北京的城市生活垃圾产量与日俱增,生活垃圾的处理任务异常艰巨。本文回顾了北京生活垃圾处理业的市场化、产业化实践,结合国际生活垃圾处理市场化、产业化的经验,对北京市生活垃圾处理业的产业政策提出了相应建议。     

The effect of immigration in the retirement age reforms: learning from a numerical example

This article examines the role played by the low-skilled immigrant labour force in countries aiming to reform their public pension systems by postponing the pensionable age. With an overlapping-generations model in continuous time and a fully redistributive pension system, the results of this article suggest that immigration could imply a delay in the pensionable retirement age. Further, we find that the preference for a delay in retirement age increases with the labour productivity of both immigrants and native population.     

增加农民收入要靠深化农村体制改革

促进农民收入增长问题不是一个简单的问题 ,必须通盘考虑一些深层次问题 ,诸如 :农业生产方式、市场配置农业资源、城乡二元结构等等 ,从而研究并出台系统完整的体制改革方案。应该用现代科技和先进的生产力改造并提升传统农业 ,用产业化生产方式取代小农经济。     

对我国国有企业改革法规政策变迁的回顾与思考

国有企业改革作为整个经济体制改革的重要环节,与建立健全社会主义市场经济体制和完善中国特色社会主义法律体系相伴而行的。从法规政策角度回顾国有企业改革的实践经验,有利于推进国有企业改革的法治建设进程。     

Social Policy in a Fast-growing Economy: The Case of Chile

Chile has adopted a package of free-market, neo-liberal social policies. This follows a pattern established by the country's largely successful economic policies. Neo-liberal social policy consists of a series of two-tier systems, which are not in contradiction with the economic model. On the contrary, a key function of the social policies is to supplement a dynamic style of capitalist economic development through a number of mechanisms. These include: improving the skills, education and health standards of the labour force; increasing savings in a privately-run pension system; reducing labour costs to firms; and providing a safety net to those whom the "trickle down" does not reach. The paper examines social policy in three sectors: pensions, health and education. It explores historical roots, present characteristics, and the degree of success or othewise of policy in these sectors. The discussion refers to the role played by the legacy of the Pinochet military dictatorship (1973–90), the interface between public and private spheres, the whole question of social policy in the context of fast economic growth under free-market conditions (and the possible presence of causality links), the changing balance of power between suppliers and users of social sector services in favour of the latter, the threat of market failure, and questions such as whether these policies have been successful and whether (or why) Chileans are prepared to accept this unequal two-tier system.     

Working late: policy relevance for older workers in the United States

The United States has seen a sizable increase in older worker labour force participation, although how much of this is due to public policy is uncertain. In fact, outside of academic and policy research circles, there has been relatively little attention paid to older workers and the challenges of an aging workforce in that country. Public policymakers have not demonstrated the same interest in expanding employment opportunities for older workers that they have shown for other groups, or that has been seen in other countries. Still, a number of significant pieces of legislation have been enacted over the past several decades that should be making continued employment at later ages easier, more attractive, or more essential financially. This paper examines those policies. However, because of confounding and conflicting influences from elsewhere, public policy initiatives focusing on older worker employment do not appear to be major contributors to rising labour force participation rates at older ages.     

Effects of an Individual Development Account Program on Retirement Saving: Follow-up Evidence From a Randomized Experiment

We examine the 10-year follow-up effects on retirement saving of an individual development account (IDA) program using data from a randomized experiment that ran from 1998 to 2003 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The IDA program included financial education, encouragement to save, and matching funds for several qualified uses of the saving, including contributions to retirement accounts. The results indicate that as of 2009, 6 years after the program ended, the IDA program had no impact on the propensity to hold a retirement account, the account balance, or the sufficiency of retirement balances to meet retirement expenses.     

劳动就业政策变革的现实性分析

劳动就业政策的变革,除了要与本国的历史文化和制度基础相适应,并进行互补性与综合性等相关制度设计以外,还应当具有政治可行性。其中,互补性与综合性主要表现为就业保护与社会保护之间的互补性、消极的与积极的劳动力市场政策之间的互补性、税收与失业救济之间的互补性、经济性互补与政治性互补之间的互补性等;政治可行性的核心是各社会群体之间利益的平衡。就业保护的政治性支持与租的存在、劳动力市场僵化的政治性支持与失业的自我强化机制、劳动力市场边缘灵活化改革的政治性支持与中位选民的变化、积极的劳动力市场政策的税收与暴露效应等是劳动就业政策变革政治可行性的集中体现与决定因素。