The paper examines social security (public pension) reforms in which the programme is partially shifted from a public unfunded basis to a private, prefunded, basis. It focuses on reforms where individuals have a choice in switching from public funded to private unfunded programmes (as in the ‘contracting out’ scheme in the UK), or where some individuals are forced to join the funded scheme, or ...

In this paper, I compare the welfare implications of implementing Bismarckian and Beveridgean social security systems. I …rst judge a social security system with universal bene…ts against one with earningsdependent bene…ts that provides the same level of bene…ts. Surprisingly, I …nd that agents can be better o¤ with the implementation of a system with universal bene…ts both in the short and in ...

This article discusses the danger of a growing digital divide between rural and other areas. It presents broadband as increasingly necessary for the delivery of information, health, education, business, social security, public and leisure services. Access to broadband has become vital for rural communities to participate in a progressively digital economy and to overcome problems of physical an...

This paper exploits a natural policy experiment to directly identify the crowding out effects of public transfers on the incidence and level of private transfers. The introduction of a large social security program in Taiwan is used to estimate the effect of an exogenous increase in government transfer payments to the elderly on the private transfer behavior of their adult children. Using an in...

Using a calibrated OLG model with several sources of uncertainty we find that the impact of ageing and of reform of social security upon the demand for housing and the level of owner occupation is substantial. The overall structure of household asset holdings in particular the split between real and financial assets is sensitive to demographics and to the generosity of state run, pay-as-yougo p...

A provision in section 202(j) of the Social Security Act enables an applicant for social security benefits to become entitled to benefits retroactively for as many as 12 months before the month in which he filed his application, if all requirements have been met for the retroactive period. A fully insured worker who applies for benefits in December 1974, for example, on attaining age 63 may ele...

This paper analyses the e¤ects of reducing unfunded social security in a closed economy that consists of a service sector and a commodity sector. It is shown that if old agents mainly demand labour intensive services, a modest decrease of the pay-as-you-go pension scheme still raises long-run utility as long as the economy is dynamically e¢cient. However, entirely privatising the social securit...

This paper shows theoretically and empirically that an aggregate Euler equation relates the real interest rate to the growth rate of per capita consumption and the ratio of private and social security wealth plus asset income to consumption. Using the estimated Euler equation, the paper then calculates the steady-state effects of social security reform. Reforms that reduce the ratio of social s...

The Social Security Administration, in its annual report to the Congress.1 reviews the contribution that the social security programs made to the national economy during the fiscal year 1949 through its provision of basic economic security for the Nation’s gainfully employed persons and their families. It also summarizes the servicesprovided to people who lack security because of personal, fami...

The function of the social insurance system as a key part of the modern social security system is reflected in the operation of social insurance funds. The mode of social insurance funds forms the foundation for the social insurance system. To address the pressure of an aging population and to meet the demands of the rapid development of the capital market (especially in international capital f...