Unemployment dynamics in an OLG economy with public pensions

Pension benefits in old age establish a disincentive to save in youth, thereby yielding lower levels of capital stock and the wage rate. As a result, the trade union has an incentive to change the composition of its two targets: employment and the wage rate. This paper develops a model that includes employment effects of public pensions via capital accumulation and union wage setting. Within this framework, we consider how contribution rates to the pension system influence the level and time path of the unemployment rate. It is demonstrated that (1) a higher contribution rate results in a lower unemployment rate, and (2) the economy with a high (low) contribution rate experiences monotone convergence towards (oscillatory convergence towards or a period-2 cycle around) the steady state. The author would like to thank an anonymous referee, Kazutoshi Miyazawa, and seminar participants at Osaka University for their useful comments and suggestions, and Masako Ikefuji and Hiroaki Yamagami for their research assistance. Financial support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) (No.17730131), the Asahi Glass Foundation, the Japan Economic Research Foundation and the 21st Century COE Program (Osaka University) is gratefully acknowledged. All remaining errors are mine.     

构建贫困农村养老保障体系的对策研究——基于河北省涞水县的实证分析

本文通过对涞水县3个乡的12个村、362户居民的入户调查，了解了困扰涞水县贫困农民养老的问题所在，并就贫困农村养老保障进行了对策性探讨，旨在帮助贫困农民解决实际的养老问题，同时也为构建贫困农村养老保障体系提供参考。     

The Political Economy of Rental Housing in Spain: The Dialectics of Exploitation(s) and Regulations

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses how the exploitation of tenants in Spain is boosting income for banks, hedge funds and pension funds. It does so by tracing the origins of the money invested in a Tres Cantos housing project in Madrid. The paper makes the following claims: First, the exploitation taking place in households -referred in this paper as secondary- is increasingly related to worker exploitation, and thus this particular type of exploitation is increasingly relevant to the dynamics of capital accumulation. Second, the key role of secondary exploitation of tenants in the revenue-making strategies of pension funds, hedge funds and banks is augmented and mediated by a myriad of regulations being implemented at the national and supranational scales. Theoretically, the paper contests the Marxian claim that household exploitation is ‘secondary’ to the exploitation taking place in the production process.     

Market Structure and Risk Taking in the Banking Industry

We demonstrate that the common view according to which an increase in competition leads banks to increased risk taking fails to hold in an environment where homogeneous loss averse consumers can choose in which bank to make a deposit based on their knowledge of the riskiness incorporated in the banks outstanding loan portfolios. With an exclusive focus on imperfect competition we find that banks incentives for risk taking are invariant to a change in the banking market structure from duopoly to monopoly. Finally, we show that deposit insurance would eliminate the gains from bank competition when banks use asset quality as a strategic instrument.revised version received October 15, 2003     

复保险欺诈法律规制

笔者认为复保险欺诈区别于善意复保险之处在于投保人于保险合同订立之际,意图谋取不当得利,或在保险合同有效期内知悉复保险的存在而不为通知,或故意为虚假通知.对于复保险欺诈的法律规制,认为应将复保险欺诈作为保险合同法定无效的原因,对严重的复保险欺诈应追究刑事责任;可以赋予保险人司法协助请求权,建立反保险欺诈信息中心.     

当前我国农业保险发展的主要问题及对策建议

我国农业保险正面临着极好的发展机遇,出现了良好的发展势头.但目前仍然存在制约我国农业保险发展的诸多因素,主要是:农业风险本身的可保性差;农业保险经营技术落后;农民收入低,政府投入少;法律法规建设缺位等.我国农业保险要健康有序的发展,必须改进农业保险经营技术;建立有效的再保险机制;增加政府投入,逐步实行以支持农业保险为主的农业保护政策;加快农业保险立法进程,使农业保险走上规范化制度化发展的轨道.     

农民工大病医疗险与城镇基本医疗险的衔接

农民工大病医疗保险“只保当期,不计参保年限”的政策忽略了农民工身份转换和农民工老年医疗保障的问题，其与城镇职工基本医疗保险问的转移和衔接问题亟待解决。少数城市已经探索的三种转移和衔接模式各有特点，可以相互补充，灵活解决农民工大病医疗保险的转移和衔接问题。折算和补缴的计算依据至关重要。单纯按照单位所缴费率的差异来计算对农民工是极其不合理的，单位所缴费用应扣除划入个人账户部分，还应考虑到农民工大都年轻、发病率低，为统筹基金贡献很大且统筹基金理应由用人单位而非职工缴纳等多个因素。     

我国保险业市场结构特征及对策分析

本文依据传统的产业组织理论,从市场集中度、产品差别化、进退障碍三个方面分析中国保险业的市场结构特征,得出我国保险业是一个寡头垄断行业,并进一步提出解决这种寡头垄断市场结构的对策措施.     

长期护理保险在中国的选择-基于制度经济学的分析

为了解决人口老龄化背景下的老年护理问题,德国、日本先后于1995年1月1日、2000年4月1日启动长期护理保险制度。我国在1999年也已经进入老龄化国家行列,老龄化并呈加速趋势。我国农村家庭养老看护功能日益削弱、城镇养老机构数量不足、新型居家养老模式的资金来源不足。有必要借鉴德国、日本长期护理保险制度,采取城市的居家养老护理保险与农村的老年护理救助模式。基于制度经济学的角度,从价值支持、意识形态支持、成本支持与路径支持上论证了该制度的可行性。     

关于农业保险立法的建议

构建多层次农村金融体系是新农村建设的难点，农业保险在分散和降低农业金融体系系统性风险方面发挥着无可替代的作用。我国应针对现行农业保险法律法规存在缺失的状况，坚持正确的立法原则，逐步完善农业保险立法，促进新农村建设顺利推进。