Social security reform and the support for public education

Old age pensions and public education account for a large share of public budgets. We link both programs through a tax-transfer system that is also sensitive to labor market distortions. We analyze the impact that alternative pension reforms have, through the political process, on publicly financed education. We explain how changes in the pension system design affect the link between the two programs and also labor market incentives. These effects, if they exist, act in opposite directions. Overall, we find that most proposals that entail a partial privatization of pensions reduce the willingness of the society to fund public education.     

Pensions and fertility: back to the roots

Fertility has long been declining in industrialised countries and the existence of public pension systems is considered as one of the causes. This paper provides detailed evidence on the mechanism by which a public pension system depresses fertility, based on historical data. Our theoretical framework highlights that the effect of a public pension system on fertility is ex ante ambiguous while its size is determined by the internal rate of return of the pension system. We identify an overall negative effect of the introduction of pension insurance on fertility using regional variation across 23 provinces of Imperial Germany in key variables of Bismarck’s pension system, which was introduced in Imperial Germany in 1891. The negative effect on fertility is robust to controlling for the traditional determinants of the first demographic transition as well as to other policy changes.     

Mixing Bismarck and child pension systems: an optimum taxation approach

Pensions with a strong tax–benefit link (Bismarck pensions) minimise the labour–leisure distortion of the public pension system. By contrast, pensions with a strong link of benefits to the number of children (child pensions) minimise the fertility distortion. When both types of distortion are present, we obtain a Corlett–Hague result regarding the optimal mix of the two pension formulae: the Bismack pension should be given a positive weight if and only if children are more complementary to leisure than consumption. Alternative fertility instruments such as child benefits turn out to be perfect substitutes to a child pension.     

Social security, public education, and growth in a representative democracy

This paper studies the relationship between public education and pay-as-you-go social security in a representative democracy, where the government reacts both to voting and lobbying activities of workers and pensioners. While an intergenerational conflict prevails concerning actual social security contributions, workers may prefer public education for its positive effect on later pension benefits. Population aging diminishes the relative lobbying power of pensioners, leading to a higher contribution rate, educational expansion, and higher per capita income growth. Received: 05 April 1999/Accepted: 20 December 1999     

Longitudinal Factor Analysis of Public Expenditure Composition and Human Development in Brazil After the 1988 Constitution

The way public policies are managed in Brazil has changed since the 1988 Federal Constitution. This study aimed to identify how changes in the structure of public expenditure composition at Brazilian federal states influenced local human development in these states. The states’ public expenditures were categorized according to their nature as spending indices whereas human development was measured through a human development index (HD). To verify the relationships between these variables, an accounting-social theoretical model was created and estimated through latent growth modeling (LGM). The LGM measurement period comprised five administration cycles of the Brazilian states (1988–2011). Variables were measured on data of the second year of state government term; their mean initial values and growth rates were recorded. Results show that, influenced by policies of centralized regulation promoted by the federal government, only the social spending growth rates had statistically significant effect on the human development growth rate, although not considered of great magnitude. Among mean initial values, the most significant was that of minimum spending (SIm), which denotes the direct impact of the Fiscal Accountability Law [Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal, in Portuguese] on human development improvements. The mean initial value of economic spending also showed a positive and significant effect on HD growth rate.     

Effects of public education and social security on fertility

Introducing a fertility decision and child care cost into an overlapping generations model with public education and social security, we examine the effects of these public policies on fertility. We show that an increase in income tax, which finances social security benefits and public investment in education, increases fertility. On the other hand, with a constant tax rate, a change in the allocation from social security benefits to public investment in education decreases fertility and, with a constant social security tax, the effect of education tax on fertility is neutral.      

家庭子女养老与个人养老“互补替代”效应：理论与实证

依据生命周期均衡收入分配原理,构建家庭子女养老和个人养老收入分配适度水平及其"互补替代"数理模型,从理论和实证角度研究家庭子女养老和个人养老经济结构优化。研究发现:(1)家庭子女养老和个人养老收入分配存在"替代"关系,而在退休年龄延长的条件下,二者存在"互补"关系;(2)家庭子女养老和个人养老替代的均衡点是家庭有2个子女,随着子女数量的增加,家庭子女养老与个人养老边际替代率递减;(3)伴随老年人寿命的延长,家庭子女养老收入再分配系数下降,个人养老收入分配系数上升且上升幅度大于前者下降幅度;(4)家庭子女养老与个人养老之间的"互补替代"效应呈现为"倒V形"曲线,且其替代的均衡点与总和生育率2.1的更替水平存在契合效应。     

The Multidimensional Efficiency of Pension System: Definition and Measurement in Cross-Country Studies

The existing literature on the efficiency of pension system, usually addresses the problem between the choice of different theoretical models, or concerns one or few empirical pension systems. In this paper quite different approach to the measurement of pension system efficiency is proposed. It is dedicated mainly to the cross-country studies of empirical pension systems, however it may be also employed to the analysis of a given pension system on the basis of time series. I identify four dimensions of pension system efficiency, referring to: GDP-distribution, adequacy of pension, influence on the labour market and administrative costs. Consequently, I propose four sets of static and one set of dynamic efficiency indicators. In the empirical part of the paper, I use Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and cluster analysis to verify the proposed method on statistical data covering 28 European countries in years 2007–2011. I prove that the method works and enables some comparisons as well as clustering of analyzed pension systems. The study delivers also some interesting empirical findings. The main goal of pension systems seems to become poverty alleviation, since the efficiency of ensuring protection against poverty, as well as the efficiency of reducing poverty, is very resistant to the efficiency of GDP-distribution. The opposite situation characterizes the efficiency of consumption smoothing—this is generally sensitive to the efficiency of GDP-distribution, and its dynamics are sensitive to the dynamics of GDP-distribution efficiency. The results of the study indicate the Norwegian and the Icelandic pension systems to be the most efficient in the analyzed group.     

Population Aging and the Rising Cost of Public Pensions

Rapid population aging is raising concerns about the sustainability of public pension systems in high‐income countries. The first part of this study identifies the four factors that determine trends in public pension expenditures: population aging, pension benefit levels, the mean age at retirement, and the labor force participation rate. The second part presents projections to 2050 of the impact of demographic trends on public pension expenditures in the absence of changes in pension benefits, labor force participation, and age at retirement. These projections demonstrate that current trends are unsustainable, because without reforms population aging will produce an unprecedented and harmful accumulation of public debt. A number of projection variants assess the potential impact of policy options aimed at improving the sustainability of public pension systems. Although the conventional responses are considered, particular attention is given to the demographic options of encouraging higher fertility and permitting more immigration. This analysis is illustrated with data from the seven largest OECD countries.     

社会养老模式下的老年人医疗消费行为--基于模糊断点回归的分析

应用CHARLS 2011／2013全国基线调查数据,研究我国现行社会养老对老年人医疗消费行为的影响。模糊断点回归结果显示,养老金提高了老年群体的住院医疗服务利用,有效挤入了老年人的医疗服务消费,而且与基本医疗保险存在互补作用;进一步研究证明,养老金对家户医疗消费水平没有显著影响,但是改变了家庭消费结构,增加了个人医疗支出占家户总消费的比例,一定程度上缓解了老年参保群体的家庭医疗开支压力。因此,政府在实现社会保障体系全民覆盖的同时,有必要探索适合我国国情和传统文化的社会养老保障体系,实现养老模式的互补,缓解人口老龄化对基本养老账户和医保基金支付的潜在压力,促进基本养老保险、企业年金和商业保险三大支柱比例的合理化,提高养老保障水平,形成社会养老保险的长效机制。     

老龄化对储蓄和社会养老保障的影响研究

本文从一个两期的世代交叠模型入手,分析了人口老龄化对储蓄和社会养老保障支出的影响。在此基础上运用动态GMM模型对我国2000～2008年地区面板数据进行实证分析。研究结果表明:第一,人均居民储蓄滞后项对基期储蓄的影响作用较大且高度显著;当期老年人口抚养比对人均居民储蓄的影响为负,上期老年人口抚养比对居民储蓄并没有显著影响。第二,人均养老保障支出滞后项对当期人均养老保障支出影响作用较大且高度显著;当期老年人口抚养比对人均养老保障支出有促进作用,而上期老年人口抚养比抑制了人均养老保障支出的增加。     

“社会养老”是否淡化了“子女责任”观念？--来自中国农村居民的经验证据

参保行为与养老观念存在双向因果关系,倾向于子女养老的居民参加养老保险的概率较低,而参加养老保险也改变着居民的养老观念。通过联立方程模型以及工具变量控制内生性后,得出了养老保险淡化“子女养老”观念的净效应,进而指出养老保险制度不仅挤出了子女对老人的经济支持,同时也弱化了人们的家庭养老观念。国家大力推行的养老保障体系在行为与观念两个层面上挤出了家庭养老,以国家制度化养老保障体系为主体的社会养老模式对家庭养老模式具有替代性。在养老模式的变迁中要综合考虑各主体的功能与责任,联合各界力量共同承担社会养老责任。     

A Quality of Growth Index for Developing Countries: A Proposal

This paper proposes a new quality of growth index for developing countries. The index encompasses both the intrinsic nature and social dimensions of growth, and is computed for over 90 countries for the period 1990–2011. The approach is premised on the fact that not all growth is created equal in terms of social outcomes, and that it does matter how one reaches from one level of income to another for various theoretical and empirical reasons. The paper finds that the quality of growth has been improving in the vast majority of developing countries over the past two decades, although the rate of convergence is relatively slow. At the same time, there are considerable cross-country variations across income levels and regions. Finally, empirical investigations point to the fact that main factors of the quality of growth are political stability, public pro-poor spending, macroeconomic stability, financial development, institutional quality and external factors such as FDI.     

An Econometric Analysis of the Relationship Between Millennium Development Goals,Economic Growth and Financial Development in South Africa

The relationship between financial development, economic growth and millennium development goals are unsettled in the literature. Using four indicators of financial development, this paper studies the link between the three variables in South Africa. In general, per capita income improves per capita spending on education in the short run. However, total domestic credit to GDP ratio decreases spending on education. There are highly significant long run relationships among the variables. Improving access to private sector credit and increasing per capita incomes are associated with improvement in health outcomes in South Africa. There are no short run nor long run relationships between household spending on clothes, economic growth and financial sector development. Improved private sector credit also improves household spending on food. In general, there are long run relationships between per capita spending on food, per capita income and financial sector development.

     

Demographic change, endogenous labor supply and the political feasibility of pension reform

Options for reforming unfunded public pension schemes that are now being discussed all share the feature that the burden induced by demographic change would be shifted towards presently living and away from unborn generations. Existing models of the political economy of pension reform can not explain why such reform options are being discussed at all. We present an alternative model in which the possibility of evasion of workers from payment of social security taxes is taken into account by modelling a labor supply function. It turns out that the burden of demographic change may fall completely or at least predominantly on the pensioners. Thus this type of model can much better explain recent trends in legislature on unfunded public pension systems in industrial democracies. Received: 7 January 1999/Accepted: 20 December 1999     

Transfers to the old,government debt and demographic change

In this paper we take the view that policy makers (representing the interests of the living generations in one way or another) take the relationship between (explicit) intergenerational transfer systems (including public pension schemes) and government deficits into account. It is assumed that policy makers are behaving altruistically towards past and future generations. Given the behavioral model, an analysis is made of the effects of demographic changes (such as the baby-boom of the 1940s and 1950s and the decline of birth rates in the 1970s) on the decisions to be taken with respect to the tax rate of the public pension system and the size of government debt. From the analysis it appears that, with the assumption of altruistic decision-makers, periods of increasing or decreasing debt can occur alternately in periods of demographic change.     

养老保险现收现付制的挤出效应——一个内生生育率模型

文章在一个内生经济增长的OLG模型框架下研究现收现付制养老保险计划的挤出效应。具体考察公共养老金税率变动对家庭的消费与储蓄、生育选择以及经济增长的长期影响。结果表明,存在向上利他动机的情况下,挤出效应的大小取决于养老基金的规模,适度规模的公共养老金计划不会挤出私人储蓄。而有利于消费增加与经济增长;较大规模的公共养老金计划会对私人自愿储蓄与消费产生负面影响,并且对储蓄的挤出作用要大于对消费的挤出。人口老龄化进程在一定程度上缓解挤出效应,促进资本积累与经济增长。     

美国社会保障退休金确定机制——方法、特点与启示

养老金待遇确定机制是公共养老金制度的核心内容之一。从三个方面系统研究了美国社会保障退休金确定机制:在退休年龄方面,实现了劳动关系和社会保障关系的相对分离,通过引入“全额领取年龄”建立了“早减晚增”式初始退休金调节机制;在计算办法方面,建立了基于个体的、全国统一的基本保险金额计算办法,并通过分级加权实现了收入再分配和减少老年贫困等功能;在待遇调整方面,建立了基于生活成本调整的退休金指数化自动调整机制。立足我国基本养老保险制度实践、借鉴美国退休金制度设计经验,本文认为我国基本养老保险待遇确定机制改革的方向是引入较为宽松灵活的退休政策、待遇计发与全国性指标挂钩以促进全国统筹和制度公平、增强待遇计发对参保和缴费行为的激励作用、尽快建立科学合理的待遇调整机制。     

Private versus public financing of education and endogenous growth

This paper examines interactions between education policy and growth. The analysis is carried out in an OLG model with two types of individuals: skilled and unskilled. An increase in public education reduces private costs of education, increases the proportion of skilled individuals, and tends to promote growth. On the other hand, education spending crowds out physical capital and reduces learning-by-doing. A marginal increase in the education subsidy can lower growth. It is yet shown that pure public education maximizes the long-run growth rate. Importantly, a partial subsidy to education can result in lower growth than pure private education. Received: 7 March 1999/Accepted: 25 November 1999     

Education and gender bias in the sex ratio at birth: Evidence from India

This article investigates the possible existence of a nonlinear link between female disadvantage in natality and education. To this end, we devise a theoretical model based on the key role of social interaction in explaining people’s acquisition of preferences, which justifies the existence of a nonmonotonic relationship between female disadvantage in natality and education. The empirical validity of the proposed model is examined for the case of India, using district-level data. In this context, our econometric analysis pays particular attention to the role of spatial dependence to avoid any potential problems of misspecification. The results confirm that the relationship between the sex ratio at birth and education in India follows an inverted U-shape. This finding is robust to the inclusion of additional explanatory variables in the analysis, and to the choice of the spatial weight matrix used to quantify the spatial interdependence between the sample districts.