Healthcare in India: Changing the Financing Strategy

The way in which healthcare is financed is critical for equity in access to healthcare. At present the proportion of public resources committed to healthcare in India is one of the lowest in the world, with less than one‐fifth of health expenditure being publicly financed. India has large‐scale poverty and yet the main source of financing healthcare is out‐of‐pocket expenditure. This is a cause of the huge inequities we see in access to healthcare. The article argues for strengthening public investment and expenditure in the health sector and suggests possible options for doing this. It also calls for a reform of the existing healthcare system by restructuring it to create a universal access mechanism which also factors in the private health sector. The article concludes that it is important to over‐emphasize the fact that health is a public or social good and so cannot be left to the vagaries of the market.     

The Changing Face of Pensions in Latin America: Design and Prospects of Individual Capitalization Pension Plans

This paper discusses the spread of individual capitalization pension plans in Latin America in the 1990s. Following the example of Chile in 1980, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru have all introduced individual capitalization pension schemes in the 1990s. The paper discusses the rationale for the reforms and compares the main design features of the reformed pension systems in these countries. Lastly, the likely success of pension reform is discussed by focusing on issues of pension scheme coverage, benefit adequacy and administrative costs.     

变化中的日本雇佣体系

20世纪90年代后,伴随泡沫经济的崩溃,日本传统的雇佣体系出现巨大转变。一方面,企业不再恪守终身雇佣制,利用“出向”、提前退休、解雇等方式分流职工,降低劳务成本;另一方面,以短工、派遣工、合同工为主的非正式员工迅速增加,已占被雇佣者总人数的30％以上,引发了终身雇佣制终结的议论。本文在具体描述终身雇佣制转变和多种雇佣形式出现的基础上,进一步分析终身雇佣制的发展趋势和日本未来的雇佣状况。     

Changing Healthcare System Types

This article classifies 32 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) healthcare systems based on data from 2001 and 2007. It shows that European countries are clustered in different types of healthcare systems and that traditional typologies are only partially represented in the four types of healthcare systems identified in this study. Type 1 represents countries with low total health expenditure (THE), high public financing, and low out‐of‐pocket payment (OOP). In‐patient healthcare is higher and out‐patient healthcare lower than the OECD average. General practitioners (GPs) are paid by capitation, and patients' access to healthcare is strictly regulated. Type 2 represents countries with an average level of THE, high public financing, above‐average OOP, and high in‐patient and out‐patient healthcare. GPs receive a salary, and access regulation is strict. Type 3 is characterized by very low THE, low public financing, and very high OOP. Both in‐patient and out‐patient healthcare is well below average, and GPs are paid a salary. Type 4 includes systems with the highest THE, the highest public financing, and the lowest direct payments by patients. In‐patient healthcare is below the OECD mean and out‐patient healthcare is well above it. GPs are paid by fee‐for‐service, and most countries offer free choice of medical doctors. The clusters for the years 2001 and 2007 are quite robust. During this time period, THE increased, and patients' access to medical doctors has since become more regulated.     

转型期劳动力市场形式变迁的制度分析

在我国经济转型期存在着体制型、城乡型、行业型以及市场内生型等竞争性与垄断性并存的二元结构劳动力市场形式。要形成市场配置型的劳动力市场,必须进一步改革现有经济体制,实现劳动力流动市场化、劳动就业契约化、就业机会均等化、人力资本产权明晰化和劳动保障社会化。政府作为制度供给的主体,应当提供相应的劳动力市场政策,尽快形成竞争性的市场配置形劳动力市场。     

The Rules of the Game: The Politics of National Pensions in Korea

This article explores the conditions in which policy changes occur over time. It studies the institutional pathways taken by national pensions in Korea over an extended period by identifying the key moments which have pushed through their development: initiation (1973), implementation (1988) and reform (1998). Public pensions have developed over time in an incremental fashion, bringing an ever‐growing proportion of the population under their umbrella. What accounts for this development? A number of factors may be at work. The elderly population has rapidly increased; the traditional extended family has increasingly become a nuclear one, meaning that what used simply to be a family issue of protecting the elderly has become a social matter; urbanization and industrialization have resulted in an ever‐growing number of life‐time contingencies such as unexpected income losses. Convincing as these socio‐economic accounts may seem, however, they offer only a snapshot, underscoring the politics of national pensions which stretch over long periods. This article seeks to answer how and in whose interest national pensions come on to the political agenda; how they are framed and defined; and how political actors respond to pressures for national pension reform. In each of the three stages, it is suggested, somewhat different institutional rules have operated. Defining institutional rules as ‘the process of who gets represented in the decision‐making processes’, this article identifies the different institutional rules which have played a pivotal role in the social policy‐making processes.     

改革开放前期广州价格体制改革模式初探

在广州经济体制改革的进程中,价格体制改革是关键的一环,其改革的目的是改变僵化的管理体制和不合理的价格体系。广州价格体制改革的历史进程大致可以分为起步、走上轨道和攻坚三个阶段。回顾这段历史,我们可以得到有益的经验和启示。     

Pensions in Nigeria: The performance of the new system of personal accounts

In 2004, Nigeria copied the 1981 Chilean pension reform and established a funded system based upon personal accounts. The new system was neither appropriate for a country such as Nigeria, nor did it meet aspirations of improving pension coverage or helping economic growth. The current financial and economic crisis hit the scheme in so far as it hit stock values. However, more important has been the negative real interest rates that can be earned on government bonds and on bank deposits — where the majority of contributions are invested. Bank scandals and rising fiscal deficits do not breed confidence in the system or the government's ability to deliver meaningful benefits in old age.     

Uncertainty, Trust and Pensions: The Case of the Current UK Reforms

Trust is valuable in facilitating social cooperation and is often thought to be helpful in the running of a complex modern welfare state. However, a number of sociologists, psychologists and political scientists have recently argued that trust in social institutions is in decline. One approach argues that the issue is compounded by a shift towards a more active and discriminating trust as part of a social transition towards a more reflexive society, and goes on to suggest that people often choose to place their active trust in non‐state provision. This paper examines recent quantitative and qualitative evidence on trust in state and non‐state pensions in the UK, as a context where current policy developments throw the general issues into sharp relief. It shows that patterns of trust in this setting can be understood in active terms, but that social divisions remain important in determining how active trust operates in practice. More vulnerable groups put their trust in the state, through lack of an alternative, while more confident and better‐off groups tend to pursue investment strategies which they believe will give them more individual control over their money. Social divisions remain important during current social transitions, and often receive less attention than they merit in theoretical writing.     

Pensions in the European Union: Adapting to Economic and Social Changes

Throughout the European Union, pension schemes are undergoing a process of adaptation to a completely different context. Some of the main stumbling blocks to this process are the great number of issues involved and the diversity of questions that these raise: demographic changes, the labour market, economic growth, social justice, the ways of regulating the established provisions and decision-making in their regard. These dimensions do not offer ready-made answers, from the standpoint of pension financing. Apart from the complexity of the situation, however, a fundamental component of European societies is definitely at stake here: the ability to guarantee a decent level of security to all citizens when they reach retirement age.     

Social Security Pensions in the Maghreb: A Study of Morocco and Tunisia

Long-term pension schemes in Morocco and Tunisia, taking all elements together, are very much in decline and for the moment there is no serious option available to make up for the limited scope of the contributory model of social insurance. Furthermore, efforts to coordinate and harmonize these schemes are only just getting going. Eligibility conditions are very strict and the benefits paid — to people with disabilities, to retirees or their surviving dependants — are frugal. Privatization of pensions helps only those able to take out private insurance, benefiting a tiny proportion of the target population. Tunisia, however, has provided its people with better safeguards than Morocco, a more populous country whose rulers are less inclined to be generous in this respect. Whatever the case, those in charge of social insurance in both countries have a long way to go before their rapidly ageing populations can aspire to a relatively decent quality of life.     

家庭结构的变迁与家庭保障功能的弱化

家庭结构模式与家庭保障功能之间存在着密切的相关关系。在人均收入和保障成本不变的情况下,家庭保障功能随家庭体系的拓展不断得到强化,随家庭体系的解体不断趋于弱化。当今中国家庭规模的小型化、家庭结构方式的多元化、家庭人口结构的老龄化以及婚姻家庭观念的淡化都在不同程度上动摇着中国传统的以家为中心的保障体系,迫切要求我们建立起与家庭结构模式及其发展趋势相适应的以社会为主体的保障体系。     

改革开放以来北京市的投融资体制研究

改革开放以来,在中国城市投融资体制转轨背景下,北京市以国有资本为主的投融资体制,在市场化的推动下逐步形成了多元化的投资环境。政府主导的市场化投融资体制之间形成了以下关系:一是政府投资和市场化运作之间存在显著正相关性;二是民间资本和外资成为新的投资与运营主体;三是投资主体多元化和融资渠道商业化,加快了城市发展的进程。     

新形势下甘肃省中小企业融资体系实证研究

中小企业融资难,既有政策体系不完善的因素,又有企业自身经营管理的因素,既有融资渠道狭窄的因素,也有外部环境的因素。本文立足2008年《甘肃省中小企业信用融资状况调查问卷》（以下简称《调查问卷》）的结果,结合甘肃省中小企业信用与融资的实际情况,从政府、企业、银行以及金融生态环境等方面分析了中小企业融资难的原因,以期从不同的视角来探讨新形势下影响甘肃省中小企业融资难的综合因素,从而为解决中小企业融资难的问题提供可行性策略。     

The development and Reform of Social Security Pensions:The Approach of the International Labour Office

The reform and the development of pension schemes are affected by the values society places on the provision of income security in old age and the resources it is prepared to allocate for the purpose. This paper examines those values and the issues arising from them. The objective is to propose reforms which will simultaneously provide full coverage with good governance, prevent poverty in old age, and result in indexed, guaranteed and reliable pensions for those onaverage incomes, all with minimum economic distortion or adverse economic effects. The question of the most appropriate design has to be weighed against these other factors, which will determine not only what is feasible and what is not, but also where the most desirable balance lies. The optimum structure would seem to involve a mix of defined benefit and defined contribution schemes.     

Old-age Pensions in Spain: Recent Reforms and Some of Their Consequences for the Risk of Poverty

The starting point of this study is based on the supposition that the successive reforms carried out on the Spanish system of old‐age pensions since the 1980s have altered both the intergenerational distribution of income and the risk of poverty for the elderly. The article will first outline how demographic factors and personal incomes affect the risk of poverty among the elderly. The second part focuses attention on the mediating role played by the social security system in the distribution of intergenerational income, and underlines how the adoption of a longitudinal viewpoint of the intergenerational positions helps us to understand the development of the risk of poverty among the elderly. The third part describes in brief the successive reforms that were carried out on the Spanish regime of retirement pensions. Finally, an analysis of the evolution of the personal incomes of the elderly and younger generations has been made, based on the data collected by the European Community Household Panel from 1994 to 2001. This analysis suggests that the reforms have increased the risk of poverty among the over‐60s owing to a combination of two factors. On the one hand, there has been an increasing tendency among the over‐60s to stop working completely, which has reduced job earnings especially for men aged between 60 and 70. Even more important has been the failure of public pensions to keep pace with the increase in the standard of living, though it is true that they have helped maintain the average purchasing power of the less well‐off old‐age pensioners.     

日本企业融资实证研究

近年来日本企业融资的显著特点是在保持银行的间接融资主体地位不变的同时,直接融资比例不断扩大。在融资偏好上,大企业与中小企业有所不同。中小企业的融资环境依旧不容乐观,但资产证券化等直接融资方式的多样化,又为企业尤其是中小企业融资问题的解决带来了革命性的创新。     

The Public Finance Implications of Private Pensions: An Analysis with Special Reference to the United Kingdom

In an effort to take the costs of pensions "off the books", many have advocated giving a greater role to funded benefits, privately provided. However, where governments have adopted such an approach, they have both mandated contributions to the private schemes and sought, in the interests of consumer protection, to regulate them. Moreover, in many cases, either explicitly or implicitly, they have made some guarantees about the benefits that will be received. This paper, which makes special reference to plans and debates in the United Kingdom, argues that governments have, therefore, taken on some contingent liabilities, and that these liabilities have public finance implications. Even with privatization, not all the costs of pensions will be "off budget".     

Equity and Redistribution Between Generations: A Challenge for the Future of Pensions and all Social Protection Schemes

Throughout Europe today, the problems of employment and the prospects of pronounced demographic ageing combine to raise a number of questions on the future of pensions and on the underlying principles of redistribution between generations. Everywhere a new debate has arisen on intergenerational equity. It has often served as the justification for pension scheme reforms introduced or pending in most countries. Some clarification is needed on what is actually meant by intergenerational equity, all the more so with the ongoing complexity of the scientific and political arguments on the subject. In this paper I attempt to show, on the basis of information derived from my research, why a financial view of intergenerational redistribution seems inadequate and how, in discussing the future of such redistribution, there are new forms of life cycle organization and redistribution of worktime and compensated inactivity across this life cycle that need to be considered. This paper aims to show that in considering the future of pension schemes and the prospects of a contract between generations one must take into account the manner in which the distribution of work operates between all ages and across the whole life cycle, in relation to the structure of social security. Welfare states today constitute an inextricable tangle of risks and coverage systems. In such circumstances it would seem rash to countenance the kind of public pension reforms that have been envisaged by a number of member countries of the European Union, not leastFrance, without taking into account the close relationship that now exists between pensions, unemployment insurance and disability. Reform in one sector cannot meet the challenge of the ageing population in our developed societies.     

结构融资之伤

次级贷款危机起源于结构化融资的债务抵押证券（MBS）,本文通过分析结构化融资的实质,揭示危机发生的原因是泡沫化的房地产价格和CDO、CDS等衍生工具的运用,追求超额利润的衍生产品把风险扩散到了整个金融领域。我们应该避免由于贪婪带来的资产泡沫,追求实体经济的切实增长。