Attitudes About Working Beyond Normal Retirement Age: The Role of Mandatory Retirement

The Dutch government abolished mandatory retirement for national-level civil servants in 2008, but not for employees in other sectors. This study analyzes whether national-level civil servants have different attitudes and plans about working beyond normal retirement age than employees in other sectors. Results show no clear differences between the groups. A national ban on mandatory retirement would presumably not lead to many more older workers continuing to work beyond normal retirement, but would need to be integrated in a much broader policy reform that also addresses employment protection legislation and seniority-based wages.     

Journey towards independent living: resilience processes of women leaving residential care in South Africa

Among the many youth transitioning to young adulthood, a group that has been found to be particularly vulnerable is young people transitioning out of care, particularly residential care. Research on this population of youth has burgeoned over the past few decades, but in South Africa it remains limited. This article focuses on the resilience processes that facilitate better transitions of young women out of care and towards independent living. It replicates the research design of a previous study with young men, with the aim of determining to what extent the resilience process of young women are similar to those of men. A sample of nine women was purposively selected, interviewed in-depth and data analysed using grounded theory methods. The findings indicate that the same resilience process found among male care-leavers are evident also in the narratives of female care-leavers, confirming the findings of the previous study. However, these processes had a slightly stronger relational focus among women than was seen among men. The authors conclude that similar resilience-building programmes can be implemented to prepare both males and females for leaving care.     

人口老龄化对积极财政政策有效性的影响——兼析延迟退休的宏观经济效应

人口老龄化不但影响到宏观经济的稳定,也会对财政政策的有效性产生影响。将人口老龄化引入动态随机一般均衡模型,分析人口老龄化对4种积极财政政策工具(扩大政府支出、提高劳动所得税起征点、提高劳动所得税累进性和增加公共投资)有效性产生的影响以及延迟退休的动态宏观经济效应,结果表明:人口老龄化扩大了政府支出和政府公共投资对消费产生的挤出效应,降低了4种积极财政政策工具对产出、消费、就业的促进效应,也强化了其对通胀和工资膨胀的提升效应;延迟退休未对私人消费产生挤出效应,有利于就业、产出和消费增长,并有助于稳定通胀和工资膨胀;与财政政策工具相比,延迟退休引致的整体社会福利损失较小。人口老龄化降低了积极财政政策的有效性,基于稳定宏观经济和降低社会福利损失的考虑,延迟退休是一个较优的政策选择。     

延迟退休与投资收益对基本养老金替代率的影响

以养老金替代率为切入点,通过建立养老金个人账户和社会统筹替代率模型,测算不同退休年龄、投资收益率、缴费基数下的养老金替代率,研究发现我国目前的养老金替代率偏低,与目标替代率差距较大,但是延迟退休年龄、提高个人账户收益率、提高缴费档次对养老金替代率有正向作用。建议:尽快出台切实可行的渐进性延迟退休政策;提高个人账户基金收益率;建立完善缴费激励机制;注重保护弱势群体的利益;提高人们可支配收入,树立居民参保意识。     

退休养老金双轨制问题研究

我国城镇职工养老保险体系中的“退休养老金双轨制”一直被社会深为诟病,社会上要求取消“双轨制”的呼声越来越高。而与此同时,我国正在跑步进入老龄化社会,这使得尽快完善我国养老保险制度体系显得极为急迫和重要。本文从我国养老保险制度改革的历史进程分析入手,总结当前我国退休养老金双轨制形成的背景、原因以及现状和主要特点。在此基础上,分析退休养老金双轨制逐渐暴露的问题以及由此引起的社会公正、贫富差距等问题,对废除退休养老金双轨制的主要困难和必要性进行了双向分析,在借鉴国外不同先进的退休养老金制度的基础上,对我国完善养老保险制度提出了一些对策性的建议和对策,希望能为我国完善养老保险制度投石问路,起到抱砖引玉的作用。     

加强离退休党支部建设的思考

离退休党支部建设是党的基层组织建设的重要组成部分。加强离退休党支部建设,对于贯彻落实党中央关于政治上尊重和关心离退休干部的要求,进一步加强离退休队伍建设,具有十分重要的意义。文章论述了加强离退休党支部建设的重要意义、离退休干部党支部的地位作用、主要任务、工作原则和工作方法,以及建立党支部建设的长效机制,促进离退休干部党支部工作步入科学化轨道等问题。     

论李东阳的仕宦意识

李东阳的仕宦意识经历了一个由强烈到淡薄的发展过程.弘治十四年以前,他的仕宦意识比较强烈,这主要与其少年教育、仕途经历、君臣关系有关.之后,这种意识逐渐淡化;至正德间,已非常淡薄.导致这一现象的重要因素主要有三点:功成身退思想之影响;体弱多病,痛失爱子;朝政昏暗,对国事彻底失望.正德间,东阳不能去位,并非迷恋相位,而是不得已而为之,但他并没有真正达到能屈能伸,舍弃一已私利之境界.无论如何,这对国家是有利的.正确把握李东阳仕宦意识之变化,有助于对其做出实事求是的评价.     

The correlated random walk in continuous time with barriers

In this paper correlation has been introduced between two successive transitions in the model investigated by Moyal and Heathcote (1959). The transition rate has been taken to be constant and for simplicity of mathematical expressions the time scale has been so chosen that this rate is unity. For the unrestricted walk we find that the mean position of the particle at time t is that position for which the probability of the particle arriving at some earlier instant from the left is 1/2. With both the barriers either absorbing or reflecting, we have obtained the Laplace Transform of the distributions, but because of the complicated nature of the mathematical expressions involved we are able to find only the asymptotic distributions. For the reflecting barrier case, we find that the process tends to a stationary distribution and that the expected position is eventually the middle point between the barriers.     

Higher education and civic engagement

This paper focuses on the relationship between social engagement, particularly civic engagement, and education. It is well known that more highly educated people are more likely to engage in voluntary work in formalized settings. It has been difficult to disentangle the effect of higher education from that of family origin and occupational socialization. This paper examines the effects of tertiary education on the social and civic engagement of young people, using the British Household Panel Study. The social and civic activity of young people is observed in their late teens, before entering the labour market or tertiary education, and compared with that of the same young people in their early 20s, after completing tertiary education courses or gaining labour market experience. It was found that the social and civic engagement of young people who would enter higher education was higher in their late teens than that of their peers who did not enter. However, higher education had a small additional effect on civic engagement, for both young and mature students. The children of professionals were the social grouping most likely to be involved in civic activities. The relationship of higher education, professional occupations and family socialization is discussed.