Informal workers and Kenya’s National Hospital Insurance Fund: Identifying barriers to voluntary participation

This article investigates the barriers to informal workers’ voluntary participation in Kenya’s national health insurance scheme – the National Hospital Insurance Fund. Based on primary data from both qualitative and quantitative methods, we find that the key determinants of enrolment include social factors, such as marital status, which create demand for insurance, and the role of informal workers’ associations that promote the voluntary uptake of health insurance and prevent default through contribution support. Participation barriers and reasons for inactiveness stem from the nature of informal work characterized by irregular earnings, which combine with apprehension about having to pay penalty charges for the late payment of premiums, inadequate levels of knowledge about health insurance schemes, institutional constraints such as complex registration procedures, as well as premium costs and poor-quality services, all of which discourage enrolment or the reactivation of lapsed membership. There is thus a need for health insurance schemes, such as Kenya’s National Hospital Insurance Fund, to educate informal workers on insurance services and protocols and to improve services to encourage uptake and reduce default behaviour.     

产业政策会影响上市公司盈余预告自愿披露吗？——基于政策信号传递效应视角

产业政策是政府资源配置的导向信号,对上市公司管理层信息披露行为具有重要影响。基于2006—2019年我国A股上市公司自愿性盈余预告数据,实证检验了产业政策引导管理层盈余预告自愿披露的作用路径。研究发现,产业政策信号传递具有引导管理层盈余预告自愿披露的积极作用；且在市场化程度较高的地区,以及分析师关注度较高的企业,该积极作用更显著。进一步研究发现,管理层顺应产业政策导向主动披露盈余预告能够引起更为正向的市场反应,获取超额收益。因此,政府应关注产业政策信号传递在信息市场中的正向作用,以及区域差异性和分析师行为对这一过程的影响,从而使得产业政策实施效果最优化。     

Digital social security accounts for platform workers: The case of Estonia’s entrepreneur account

Advancements in technology enable new opportunities for creating digital social security accounts, but the effectiveness of these to solve the accessibility and eligibility issues facing platform workers has not been assessed fully in the literature. The potential of digital social security accounts lies in their ability to consider the possible different streams of income of atypical workers and to improve the effective access of these workers to social security. Tax and social security offices can now exchange information on the income of platform workers in real time, which offers the promise of formalizing the previously informal casual work relationships of the self-employed. This article explores the case of the Estonian entrepreneur account as a digital hybrid solution for improving the effective access to social security of platform workers. Digital portable accounts create the conditions for the structural improvement required to respond adequately to meet the changing social security needs of atypical workers. However, this also requires that the policy design be thought through carefully, to avoid digital portable accounts being simply a digital facilitator of outdated solutions.