On the Political Economy of Low Skilled Immigration and the Welfare State

This paper inquires into the collective decision making on both unemployment insurance and immigration. It is shown that low skill immigration typically increases the contribution rate to the unemployment insurance system. This can translate into higher benefits, the increase of the economy-wide unemployment rate nonwithstanding. The host country allows for immigration only if high skilled natives are sufficiently powerful. Furthermore, political rights of immigrants are restricted to a minimum.     

The Long-run Effects of the Italian Pension Reforms

The paper analysesthe reforms of the Italian mandatory pension scheme for employeeslegislated in the 1990s. To assess the effects of the reforms,a microsimulation model calibrated on cross-section data is developed.The model is aimed at estimating the average income of a memberof a cohort, as well as the average per capita income of allindividuals alive in a given year. The long-run effects of thereform are analysed, comparing the characteristics of alternativefinancing schemes. A substantial improvement of the equity aswell as the long-run sustainability of the Italian public pensionschemes emerges. However, the dreary demographic scenario callsfor further tightening of eligibility rules sometime in the nextdecades if long-run sustainability of public debt is to be achieved.On the basis of sensitivity analysis, some changes aimed at hedgingthe system against unexpected shocks are suggested.     

试论中国福利社会与西方福利国家的区别

建设福利社会是我国社会福利体系建设的长远目标,但建设福利社会不是把中国发展为西方式的福利国家,二者之间存在着根本差异。西方福利国家已有60余年历史,中国福利社会刚刚起步;西方福利国家归根结底是资本主义国家,中国福利社会则是中国特色社会主义的社会形态;西方福利国家的意识形态是多元化的,中国福利社会则坚持一元化的马克思主义;西方福利国家充满着国内外的政治算计,中国福利社会旨在增进全体人民的福祉;西方福利国家更多地追求＂高福利＂,中国福利社会则强调＂福利适度化＂。     

The Welfare State in a Changing Environment

We analyse how the welfare state, i.e., social insurance that works through redistributive taxation, should respond to increases in risks and to increases in the cost of operating the welfare state. With respect to risks, we distinguish between risks that can be insured and such that cannot (background risks). Insurable risks can be reduced by costly individual self-insurance and by costly social insurance. We show: (i) Self-insurance will be higher the more costly is the welfare state and the larger are background or insured risks. (ii) Full social insurance can only be optimal in a costless welfare state. (iii) The optimal welfare state is not necessarily larger the less costly it is. (iv) The welfare state need not optimally expand when risks increase that it insures. (v) It should, however, expand when risks increase that it does not insure.     

Free Immigration and Welfare Access: The Swedish Experience

With the expansion of the European Union from 15 to 25 member countries in 2004, fears of migrants’ excessive welfare use led 14 of the 15 older member countries to impose restrictions on the access of citizens of the new member countries – the A10 countries – to their welfare systems. Sweden was the only exception. This paper evaluates the net contribution of post‐enlargement A10 immigrants to Swedish public finances in 2007. On average, A10 immigrants generate less public revenue than the population on average, but they also cost less. The net result is a zero or small positive net contribution. In particular, A10 immigrants do not benefit more from basic social welfare than the population on average. The discounted net contribution over the A10 immigrants’ lifetimes may be positive or negative depending, for example, on their income assimilation rates and on future real interest rates.     

Growth and Welfare Effects of Fiscal Policy in an Endogenous Growth Model with Public Investment

In this paper we analyze growth and welfare effects of fiscal policy in an endogenous growth model along the balanced growth path. As to the model we assume that sustained per capita growth results from public investment. The government uses its tax revenue for investment in public capital, for investment subsidy and for transfer payments. We then analyze how the balanced growth rate reacts to variations in those policy variables. Further, we study welfare effects of varying the fiscal parameters and demonstrate that, in general, maximizing economic growth is not equivalent to maximizing welfare on the balanced growth path.     

Welfare to Work in the U.S.: A Model for Other Developed Nations?

The 1996 U.S. welfare reform legislation established the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. TANF represents the ascendance of the view that market work should be substituted for benefit recipiency. We describe the problems inherent in U.S. social welfare policy prior to TANF (emphasizing its serious labor supply disincentives), catalogue the wide variety of economic changes implicit in TANF, and describe the policies undertaken by the state of Wisconsin, a leader in implementing the new federal policy. We conclude by asking if this U.S. reform can serve as a model for other nations.     

构建符合我国国情的家庭福利政策体系研究

目前我国正处于经济、社会和文化急剧变化的现代化进程中,传统的家庭结构、规模、功能已发生了深刻的变化,出现了许多新问题。本文从保障家庭经济安全;支持家庭照顾能力,分担家庭照顾责任;扩展基础性的教育保障,实现区域内教育资源均衡发展等角度出发重构了我国的家庭福利政策体系。     

公共福利支出视角下的农村社会保障体系建设

对于我国现行的农村社会保障体系,本文基于财政福利支出的视角提出了相关问题,主要包括：支出导向单一化、支出监督管理存在多方面的问题。随后,本文介绍了福利支出项目在社会保障体系中的分配功能及其政策效应。最后,根据农村公共福利支出多样化的发展要求,基于提高农民素质、发挥农民劳动力优势的目标,本文提出了完善我国农村社会保障体系的相关政策建议。     

职业福利功能之争

对职业福利功能的判断或定位,决定了在职业福利发展及其与公共福利的合作机制方面的政府政策引导方向、力度、方式或方法。国内外学者对本国或世界范围内公共福利与职业福利作用关系的实际考察发现:补充理论、替代理论和福利多元主义理论对职业福利的功能做出了不同的判断。由于对各福利供给主体功能等价原则以及国家之外的福利供给主体对国家的替代能力的质疑,替代理论和福利多元主义理论缺少广泛支持;对公共福利的补充功能成为世界范围内职业福利的功能定位。然而,职业福利本身具有高度复杂性,要使职业福利充分发挥补充功能,仍需对其本身进行深入研究。     

低碳产业补贴政策对福利分配的影响

本文从低碳产业的外部性出发。探讨了补贴对低碳产业发展的影响。首先,通过假定补贴政策对低碳产品的需求弹性不同．分析了补贴增加的福利总额在生产者和消费者之间的分配。其次,假定对低碳产业生产者进行补贴,将会使整个低碳行业生产者收益增加,推动低碳产业的快速发展。最后,提出了构建低碳产业的补贴政策要根据低碳产业发展规划分步实施的政策思路。     

Quantifying the cyclically adjusted fiscal stance for India

Taking cue from recent debate in the literature, we attempt to disentangle cyclically adjusted fiscal balance (CAB) for India broadly using the methodology recommended by the IMF, an indigenous revenue elasticity for India and a range of potential output estimates. Our results indicate that after initial success in containing CAB, it increased considerably during the crisis period. Notwithstanding a positive output gap in the post-crisis period (2009–11) and subsequent increase in inflation, the CAB continued to be expansionary, with limited withdrawal of expansionary stance, albeit a reduction in fiscal impulse. This calls for further reforms and binding framework that can withstand business cycles.     

职业福利的定位及其发展趋势

从世界范围来看,职业福利的发展越来越受到重视。由于职业福利的内容具有复杂性、广泛性,各国和地区的经济和社会发展水平,造成了职业福利概念边界模糊,这也使职业福利成为最具有挑战性的研究领域之一。本文从蒂特马斯所提出的职业福利概念出发,通过职业福利与法定福利、附加给付以及社会政策的关系定位,针对广义职业福利范围太宽泛的问题,提出了强制——选择性的维度,对职业福利进行了重新界定和划分,并对职业福利的发展趋势进行了分析。     

Assessing the Fiscal Costs and Benefits of A8 Migration to the UK*

This paper assesses the fiscal consequences of migration to the UK from the Central and Eastern European countries that joined the European Union in May 2004 (A8 countries). We show that A8 immigrants who arrived after EU enlargement in 2004 and who have at least one year of residence, and are therefore legally eligible to claim benefits, are 59 per cent less likely than natives to receive state benefits or tax credits and 57 per cent less likely to live in social housing. Furthermore, even if A8 immigrants had the same demographic characteristics as natives, they would still be 13 per cent less likely to receive benefits and 29 per cent less likely to live in social housing. We go on to compare the net fiscal contribution of A8 immigrants with that of individuals born in the UK, and find that in each fiscal year since enlargement in 2004, irrespective of the way that the net fiscal contribution is defined, A8 immigrants made a positive contribution to the public finances despite the fact that the UK has been running a budget deficit over the last few years. This is because they have a higher labour force participation rate, pay proportionately more in indirect taxes and make much less use of benefits and public services.     

中国经济周期波动的福利成本研究——基于小概率“严重衰退”事件的视角

本文在Lucas模型基础上,引入存在严重衰退状态的消费增长过程,重新估算中国经济周期的福利成本,修正了Lucas论断。通过本文模型的计算,我们得出:(1)应用存在严重衰退状态的福利成本模型估算的中国经济波动的福利成本远远高于Lucas模型估算的结果。在合理的参数范围内,前者一般是后者的10倍左右。因此,对于中国经济而言,旨在防止严重衰退状态发生的宏观稳定政策的福利收益相当大。(2)对于中国经济而言,降低严重衰退状态发生的概率(从0.017降低到0.003)所获得的福利收益大约是Lucas模型结果的3～4倍。这表明,中国宏观稳定政策的收益主要来源于降低严重衰退状态的发生概率,而不是减少通常意义上的经济波动。(3)在相对风险规避系数取值范围内(γ小于6),中国经济波动的福利成本与美国经济波动的福利成本相当接近。这从某种程度上说明了存在严重衰退状态的福利成本模型适用于不同的经济体。     

Disclosure Interactions and the Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence From the Spanish Continuous Market

Abstract:  The purpose of this paper is to provide some new evidence on the relationship between disclosure and the cost of equity capital. We propose a new specification for the empirical test based on the idea that in the previous models one crucial variable was missing: accounting policy choice. We test our theoretical hypothesis using a sample of Spanish firms quoted on the Spanish continuous market from 1999 to 2002. We adopt the ex-ante approach to measure the cost of equity capital, taking analysts predictions as a proxy for expected earnings. As an explanatory variable we use an index measuring annual report disclosure quality. This measure of disclosure is combined with a proxy for the accounting policy choice of the firm. We measure firms' conservatism using the modified Jones model of Dechow et al. (1995) to estimate discretionary accruals. Our results confirm that the relationship between disclosure and cost of capital is affected by the choice of accounting policy.     

Impacts of Immigration on an Ageing Welfare State: An Applied General Equilibrium Model for France

Immigration is often seen as an instrument of adaptation for ageing countries. In this paper, we evaluate, using a dynamic general equilibrium model, the contribution of migration policy in reducing the tax burden associated with the ageing population in France. Four alternative scenarios, compared with a baseline scenario based on official projections, are simulated with the aim of quantifying the effects of immigration on French social protection finances. We show that the age and, to a lesser extent, the skill structure of immigrants are the key features that mainly determine the effects on social protection finances. Overall, these effects are all the more positive in the short to medium term if the migration policy is selective (in favour of more skilled workers). In the long term, the beneficial effects of a selective policy may disappear. But whatever the degree of selectivity of the migration policy, the financial gains from higher consequent migration flows are relatively moderate compared with the demographic changes implied by ageing.     

The influence of the nature of government accounting and reporting in decision-making: evidence from Switzerland

A key objective of government accounting and reporting has been to achieve accountability and its use in that respect has been well documented, however its use for decision-making has had less coverage. This article addresses the latter issue, providing evidence from Switzerland that the accounting basis used (accrual versus cash) influences decision-making. This is the result of the effect that the different approaches have on the nature of the information used for decision-making. Switzerland was among the first western democracies to adopt accrual accounting at both state (canton) and local levels of government in the 1980s. The Swiss federal government followed in 2007. The main examples of the use of accrual information in decision-making are: the focus on self-financing of investments in order to control borrowing, as well as the fiscal policy targets of debt reduction and maintenance of capital. All three require accrual basis information. Therefore accrual basis information is key in fiscal decision-making in Switzerland.     

The Impact of Monetary and Fiscal Policy Shocks on Stock Markets: Evidence from China

We study the impact of Chinese monetary and fiscal policy shocks and the interaction of the two policies on stock markets. We find that, first, when we focus on the contemporaneous correlation, Chinese fiscal policy has significant, negative contemporaneous relationships with stock market performance, while monetary policy’s impact on stock market performance varies, depending on the fiscal policy. Second, with respect to the lagged variables, Chinese monetary and fiscal policy both have a significant and direct positive effect on stock market performance. Meanwhile, interaction between the two policies plays an extremely important role in explaining the development of stock markets.     

通货膨胀福利成本的研究思路、发展及启示

通过梳理传统宏观货币理论和具有微观基础的现代货币理论,从各自对货币的理解来认识通货膨胀福利成本与其发展演变,可以确定一条研究通货膨胀福利成本的逻辑主线,沿着这条主线,就可以建立通货膨胀福利成本的理论框架与计量方法,从而可以展开对中国通货膨胀福利成本问题的研究。