WORKERS' SAVINGS AND THE RIGHT TO MANAGE

Abstract.  Most Western capitalist institutions are islands of fascism in a sea of democracy. But democracy can be introduced from the political to the economic sphere by re-assigning the right to manage from capital owners to workers, thereby creating a sector consisting of self-managed firms. Such firms require external finance for efficiency; this can be supplied via a new form of financial asset (performance bonds), to be held by wage-earners' investment funds. Reforms such as these could improve productivity and the quality of working life, strengthen the role of markets and help to deal with the so-called pensions crisis. These reforms would threaten the interests of private capital owners and would therefore require decisive political action: they can thus be differentiated sharply from voluntary, enterprise-level schemes for introducing profit-sharing, employee share-ownership or industrial democracy.     

The behavioral justification for public pensions: a survey

Unfunded public pension systems are primarily justified on grounds that many individuals lack sufficient capacity to appropriately save for retirement. We begin with a review of the known principle that a standard life-cycle/permanent-income consumer who discounts the future at an exponential rate can benefit from an unfunded public pension system only if the internal rate of return exceeds the private rate of return. However, a pay-as-you-go program with a below market internal rate can in fact improve lifetime utility if the consumer misestimates social security benefits, uses a hyperbolic discount function rather than the exponential function, uses a short planning horizon, behaves impulsively, or if a fraction of the population do no saving at all. A literature has consequently arisen to study how severe these behavioral defects need to be in order to justify a pay-as-you-go program. We survey this literature, and we conclude that the results are highly mixed as to whether an unfunded public pension that earns a below-market internal rate of return can be justified on grounds of shortsightedness in model economies. The challenge for this literature is that the conclusions crucially depend on the particular values of the preference parameters that are used in the simulation experiments, and these preference parameters are not observable, nor is there much consensus concerning the values that should be used in simulations. In fact, even when the analysis is confined to a small and reasonable space of the unobservable preference parameters, it is possible to reach nearly any policy conclusion. We offer some guidance for future work in this area.

Voting on Pensions: A Survey

Abstract. The paper presents a nonexhaustive survey of the literature designed to explain emergence, size and political sustainability of pay‐as‐you‐go pension systems. It proposes a simple framework of analysis (a small, open, two overlapping generation economy model), around which some variants are displayed. Dictatorship of the median voter is assumed. The text is organized to answer the following questions: (i) Do political equilibria with PAYG pension schemes exist? (ii) Why do they emerge? (iii) What are the conditions for the participation constraint of the pension game to be verified?, and finally, (iv) What is the size of the pension system chosen by the median voter and how is this size influenced by an exogenous (e.g. demographic) shock?     

The Growing Irrelevance of State Pensions

Economic argument has never been able to justify convincingly the state provision of pensions, and now the increase in wealth throughout the population has made government provision increasingly redundant. PeterWar-burton, of the stockbrokers L Messel & Company, presents the arguments for fundamental reform into the market of a paternalist and outmoded institution.     

Is there a Political Support for the Double Burden on Prolonged Activity?

In many countries elderly workers are subject to a double distortion when they consider prolonging their activity: the payroll tax and a reduction in their pension rights. It is often argued that such a double burden would not be socially desirable. We consider a setting where it would be rejected by both a utilitarian and a Rawlsian social planner. Furthermore, each individual would also reject it as a citizen candidate. We show that the double burden may nevertheless be (second-best) Pareto efficient and can be supported by a particular structure of social weights biased towards the more productive workers. The paper has been presented at the “Atelier Retraites”, Bordeaux, October 2003. We would like to thank the participants and in particular our discussant, Ronan Mahieu, for their remarks. We are also grateful to our two referees who provided detailed and constructive comments and suggestions. Support for this research project has been provided by the European RTN program through the FINRET network     

死亡率、生命周期消费与个人账户养老金

基于“消费－年龄”曲线的生命周期特征,本文研究了寿命不确定条件下的个人账户养老金调整机制。首先分析了消费、死亡率与年龄的内在关系,构建了养老金调整模型,使“养老金－年龄”曲线与“消费－年龄”曲线相匹配,这不仅增强了养老资金的保障功能,而且可缓解人口老龄化对社会总需求的不利影响。然后,构建了具有政府补贴的养老金调整模型,在引致效应的作用下,可提高缴费用于支付养老金的比例,增强资金的使用效率。     

浅谈保险资金投资REITs

2009年10月1日,新修订的《保险法》允许保险资金可以投资于不动产,房地产作为不动产内容之一,可以成为保险资金投资渠道之一。REITs作为房地产市场股权投资的一种方式,具有非关联性、高流动性和高回报率的特点,这与保险经营具有的强外部性、成本滞后性、资金运转周期长等特点相吻合,为保险资金投资房地产搭建了难得的操作平台。通过分析保险资金投资REITs存在风险,并给出相关建议,对我国保险资金投资REITs发展起到一定的指导作用。     

三式簿记发展的趋势分析

簿记是人类经济社会发展的产物,它经历了从无到有、从单式到复式的发展变化过程。正像复式簿记取代单式簿记一样,三式簿记终将取代复式簿记。本人认为,现代簿记对象可以抽象为资金运动,任何资金运动都具有:资金来龙、资金去脉、资金动因三维性,资金运动的三维性是建立三式簿记的客观基础。     

浅议《证券投资基金法》对证券市场的影响

2004年6月1日正式实施的《证券投资基金法》是继《证券法》之后规范我国证券市场的又一部重要法律,具有十分重大的现实意义和深远影响。本文就《证券投资基金法》对中国证券市场的影响、重大意义以及现实存在的问题进行初步探析。     

养老基金筹集模式的实证分析

当前的养老制度改革是关注的焦点。本文首先将从介绍现存的筹集模式入手,试图换个角度来思考在人口老龄化背景下的我国养老金基金制度,实证分析模式选择对于缴费率等的影响,并基于此,讨论未来改革的方向。     

Pensions, non-discrimination policies, and the employment of older workers

This paper analyzes firms' decisions to hire older workers. We model, the role of pensions in back-loading pay for specifically trained workers. We then evaluate the effects, of imposing age discrimination rules and non-discriminatory fringe benefit rules, and analyze the consequences for the firm's decision to hire older versus younger individuals. The model predicts that defined benefit pension plans deter the hiring of older workers, but only if hired for entry level position. The reason is f hat the wages of this group cannot be lowered enough to pay for the benefits. Data from a new survey of employers are used to test this hypothesis. The findings show that a more generous defined benefit pension plan reduces employment prospects for older, entry level workers. Employers offering defined benefit pension, plans employ older workers, but tend not to hire them into entry level jobs.     

加强高校科研经费管理体系建设的思考

目前很多高校存在分配科研资金不合理或者资金管理混乱等问题。这就需要各大高校思考如何筹划建设科学合理的科研经费管理体系以达到资源与效果的统一。     

古代教育经费保障机制的创新——宋代学田制

学田制度是我国乃至世界教育财政史上的一大创举。学田的设置,在一定程度上缓解了我国封建时代办学经费的困难,扩大了社会教育面。同时更有利于封建国家运用经济手段,在文化教育方面不断强化专制主义中央集权,奠定多层次衔接的教育体制的物质基础。本文以宋代学田为典型个案,就其产生的背景、发展及完善、影响和意义等问题进行了初步探讨。     

房改房维修资金短缺的原因与解决方略——以南通市为例

南通市房改房维修服务开展了17年,维修资金已使用了近三分之一。目前,市区房改房住宅质量问题频发,而维修资金短缺的问题也逐年显现。影响维修资金短缺的因素主要有观念、政策、管理和物价等,政府部门需要通过多种手段,妥善解决房改政策遗留下来的这一民生问题。     

Interfund linkage analysis: the case of the polish pension fund sector

Although fund activities whose target is to attract the members of rivals would seem to be very important for a proper evaluation of pension fund achievements, this topic has not been looked at by researchers. This paper presents an approach to assess the interfund effects of savings transfers based upon Polish tables of transfers published by the KNUiFE over the period from the fourth quarter of 2001 to the first quarter of 2004. Some useful indicators are suggested. By means of these indicators a taxonomy of pension funds operating in Poland was carried out. We also find which transfers of savings are the most important, i.e. which changes in the relative level of such transfers cause the largest perturbations in the whole pension fund sector.     

西津电厂项目资金管理系统设计和开发

项目资金管理系统是西津电厂信息化管理系统的重要组成部分,在项目管理领域发挥着积极的作用,切实提高了企业的管理水平。文章阐述了项目资金管理系统的开发背景、设计理论基础、技术构架、开发要求、环境设计及备份设计,并着重阐述功能构架的设计开发流程。     

Concepts of evidence in systems analysis: Testing macro-system theories

Quality & Quantity -     

西津电厂项目资金管理系统设计和开发

项目资金管理系统是西津电厂信息化管理系统的重要组成部分,在项目管理领域发挥着积极的作用,切实提高了企业的管理水平。文章阐述了项目资金管理系统的开发背景、设计理论基础、技术构架、开发要求、环境设计及备份设计,并着重阐述功能构架的设计开发流程。