Why are more redistributive social security systems smaller? A median voter approach

One of the stylized facts of unfunded social security programsis that programs are larger in size, measured relative to theGDP, the tighter the link between pension claims and past earnings.We provide a political economy explanation of this stylizedfact in a median voter model, where people vote on the socialsecurity tax rate. We compare pension systems with flat-rateand earnings-related benefit formulas. Only flat-rate benefitsredistribute within a generation from high to low income groups.If labor supply is endogenous, they also imply larger efficiencycosts than earnings-related schemes. Using data on eight Europeancountries, we find that the median voter is typically middle-agedwith high income. For these voters, earnings-related systemsare more attractive both because of less intragenerational redistributionand lower distortions in labor supply. The median voter modelis also able to account for a considerable degree of cross-countryvariation in contribution rates.     

Is there any gain from social security privatization?

Increasing calls for a social security reform of switching from the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system to a funded system has been seen in recent decades. This paper examines the effect of this reform on capital accumulation and the welfare of each generation. Three methods are used to finance the pension debt, government debt financing, tax financing, and government asset financing. With government debt or tax financing, the market equilibrium remains unchanged and all generations are as well off in the new system as in the PAYG system. Thus, switching from the PAYG system to a funded system is neutral. With government asset financing, the interest rate will decrease, private capital will increase, but the total output may either increase or decrease. The welfare effect is also ambiguous in general, depending on the rate of return of government assets. With plausible parameters, our simulation shows that the reform will lower the interest rate, increase private capital, and lower government capital in the short run, but raise government capital and increase output in the long run.     

Fiscal and Welfare Effects of Balanced-budget Reforms of Korea’s National Pension System

This paper evaluates the fiscal sustainability of the benchmark pension system in Korea, which will come into effect in 2028 following the 2007 pension reforms, and the welfare effects of pension reforms aimed at a balanced budget over the life cycle. To this end, we measure the lifetime pension deficit, i.e. the difference between total pension benefits and total pension contributions in an individual’s lifetime. We find that the benchmark pension system is expected to run an average lifetime deficit of 22.36 million won (approximately $22,360), and the current pension fund is unlikely to finance the sum of future deficits. The optimal pension reform for the zero average lifetime deficit reduces social welfare by as much as a 2.06% fall in consumption and is characterised with the contribution rate of 20.3% and an average replacement rate of 66.4%. These values are much higher than the respective benchmark values, 9% and 40%, because the increase in pension benefits, combined with the increase in pension contributions, can reduce the income inequality due to the progressivity of pension benefits and the proportionality of pension contributions.     

Impact of immigration on the Japanese economy: A multi-country simulation model

To quantify the impacts of immigration and fiscal reconstruction on the Japanese economy, we present a dynamic computable general equilibrium OLG model with an overlapping generations structure. We use a total of 16 countries and regions, both including those that are industrialized, such as Japan, the US, and the EU, and developing countries, such as China, Brazil, the Philippines, and Peru.Our simulation results show that a permanent immigration flows of 150,000 will improve the Japanese economy and the welfare of current and future generations. On the other hand, a standalone increase in the consumption tax will not improve long-run welfare. The results indicate that substantially increased inflows of working-age immigrants would alleviate the need for future fiscal reform and also help to dramatically reduce the public pension burden on the working generations.     

Government Deficit, Public Investment, and Public Capital in the Transition to an Aging Japan

This paper examines the effects of government deficits, public investment, and public capital on welfare in the transition to an aging Japan by applying a simulated general equilibrium growth model. One of the main results of this paper is that targeting only high economic growth would mislead us as to economic policies, and that a policy to reduce future government deficits is most preferable for almost all generations, even though a cut in future deficits must be followed by a decrease in public investment, thus a decrease in public capital in the future. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2002, 16(4), pp. 462–491. Faculty of Economics, Shiga University, Japan; and Management School, Imperial College, United Kingdom. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: H55, H54, H62, C68, J10.     

江苏省基本养老保险水平评价及发展路径研究

基本养老保险是我国社会保险制度的重要内容,其水平的高低对我国社会保险制度的完善具有重大的意义。文章以经济发展水平、人口结构因素、制度实施水平为基本测度内容构建了基本养老保险水平的评价指标体系。运用遗传投影寻踪模型,对江苏、浙江、上海、北京、广东和山东的基本养老保险水平进行了评估和比较。研究发现,江苏省基本养老保险在六省市中处于较低的水平。在此基础上从经济总量、就业水平、生育政策、劳动力转移、养老金待遇、劳动监察等方面提出推进江苏省基本养老保险发展的对策及建议。     

日本公共养老保障体系的财政困境及对我国的启示

中国和日本同属人口老龄化速度最快的国家行列。1980年代中期以来,深度人口老龄化和经济低迷的双重压力使日本现收现付制的公共养老保障体系的财政状况迅速恶化,由之而来的对养老制度的不信任以及在解决问题过程中产生的代际负担和待遇的不公平使得越来越多的国民选择逃避养老金缴费责任,日本的公共养老保障体系面临日益严峻的挑战。考察日本养老保障体系面,临的困境及其产生原因,从中吸取经验和教训,对于我国正在进行的养老保障制度改革具有现实意义。     

Health insurance reform and economic growth: Simulation analysis in Japan

This paper evaluates the drastic reforms of Japanese public health insurance initiated in 2006. We employ a computable general equilibrium framework to numerically examine the reforms for an aging Japan in the dynamic context of overlapping generations. Our simulation produced the following results: first, an increase in the co-payment rate, a prominent feature of the 2006 reform, would promote economic growth and welfare by encouraging private saving. Second, the ex-post moral hazard behavior following the increase in co-payment rates, however, reduces economic growth. Third, Japan's trend of increasing the future public health insurance benefits can mainly be explained by its aging population, and increasing the co-payment rate does little to reduce future payments of public health insurance benefits. Fourth, the effect on future economic burdens of reducing medical costs through efficiencies in public health insurance, emphasis on preventive medical care, or technological progress in the medical field is small. Finally, a policy of maintaining public health insurance at a fixed percentage of GDP will require reducing public health insurance benefits, perhaps up to 45% by 2050. Such a policy also reduces economic growth until approximately 2035. Our simulation indicates that the reform does not significantly reduce future public health insurance benefits, but it can enhance economic growth and welfare by encouraging private saving.     

THE FOUNDATION OF THE MEXICAN WELFARE STATE AND SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM IN THE 1990s

Before 1982 Mexico's welfare state regime was a limited conservative one that put priority on the social security of organized labor. But following the country's debt crisis in 1982, this regime changed to a hybrid liberal model. The Ernest Zedillo government (1995–2000) in particular pushed ahead with liberal reform of the social security system. This paper examines the characteristics and the policy making of the social security reforms in the 1990s. The results suggest that underlying these reforms was the restructuring of the economy and the need to cope with the cost of this restructuring. The paper also points out that one of the main factors making possible the rapid execution of the reforms were the weakened political clout of the officialist labor unions due to their steady breakdown during the 1990s and the increase in the monopolistic power of the state vis‐à‐vis the position of labor during the negotiations on social security reforms.     

农村养老模式的国际比较及其借鉴

按照覆盖范围、保障水平以及养老保险基金的筹集、管理和发放方式,世界各国农村社会的养老保障主要分为社会保险型、社会福利型、个人储蓄型和社会救助型四种模式。这四种养老模式也各有其适用的范围和特点。农村养老模式及其代表国家的实践对中国的启示是:农村社会的养老保险制度必须和国情相适应、循序渐进地解决农民养老保障问题、注重法律规范、政府给予财政支持、建立多层次的农村养老保险体系等。     

The Fiscal Investment and Loan Program in Transition

This paper discusses the adequacy of the activities of the Fiscal Investment Loan Program (FILP) agencies after the fundamental reform in April 2001, which disconnected postal savings and public pension reserves from the FILP. It is found that many ideas of justifying the government interventions to the financial sector have now lost their relevancy. The activity of government financial intermediaries should be streamlined. Among infrastructure construction projects, the most serious part of welfare loss lies on national motorway construction, which is estimated to be about 14.5 trillion yen of welfare loss. J. Japan. Int. Econ., December 2002, 16(4), pp. 583–604. Department of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, Kunitachi, 186-8601, Japan; and TCER. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: H81, H54, R42.     

The Limits of Pension Privatization: Lessons from Argentine Experience

The paper studies the operation of the mixed pension system established in Argentina in 1994. It points to the limitations that the new system has encountered to achieve some of the most important objectives of pension policy and pension reform. The analysis looks at the mechanisms affecting pension system performance, with particular attention to the way in which the new pension rules have interacted with the local macroeconomic, social, and political context. The empirical analysis of this experience is oriented to provide lessons for Argentina’s future reforms, as well as for many Latin American countries with similar pension arrangements.     

Growth and Welfare Distribution in an Ageing Society: an Applied General Equilibrium Analysis for the Netherlands

This paper studies the effects of the imminent ageing of the population on economic growth and the distribution of welfare in the Netherlands. It shows that with the current system of social security ageing leads to a substantial increase of the tax burden and an estimated welfare loss for future generations of approximately 4% of lifetime wealth. It discusses the effect of reform measures in the pay-as-you-go social security system. It shows that a cut in PAYG pensions is efficiency-improving, but hurts the lower income groups of current generations. This effect can be ameliorated by a debt-financed cut in indirect taxes.     

Generational accounting in Korea

This paper reassesses the long-term fiscal position of Korea using generational accounting, modified to reflect special features of the Korean fiscal situation, notably prospective changes in public pension benefits due to the pension system's maturation and increasing expenditure on social welfare programs consistent with convergence to levels in other OECD countries. Our findings suggest that unless policy toward existing generations is substantially altered, future generations will face a heavy fiscal burden. For reasonable growth and interest rate assumptions, the difference between 2000 newborns and those born after 2000 ranges from 60 to 180%. We also find that a substantial part of the fiscal burden on future generations is explained by the long-run budgetary imbalances of public pensions and Medical Insurance. J. Japanese Int. Economies 20 (2) (2006) 234–268.     

中国人口年龄结构与养老保险制度的福利效应

预测表明，中国人口老龄化程度则在2005年以后不断增加；与此同时，在2030年以前城镇有效劳动力数量不断增加，随后会下降。在此背景下中国的养老保险制度应该在多大程度上发挥再分配的功能是养老保险制度改革需要确定的一个原则。采用中国的参数．评价养老保险制度的福利效应是本文的主要目的。养老保险的福利效应对不同时期出生的人有所差异，如果政府的目标函数兼顾效率和公平。可以得到一个对于社会总福利而言最优的养老保险规模。我们的模拟表明一个合适的现收现付制的养老保险制度在中国可以改进社会总福利。     

The optimal size of Japan's public pensions: An analysis considering the risks of longevity and volatility of return on assets

There are two main pension systems: the Defined Benefit (DB) pension system and the Defined Contribution (DC) pension system. Each system has advantages and disadvantages. This paper investigates to what degree Japan should maintain a DB public pension system which offers the benefit of sharing risk and to what degree Japan must adopt a DC pension system to eliminate intergenerational imbalance. The risks of longevity and volatility of return on assets are incorporated into the simulation model. As a result of the simulation analysis, a replacement rate of 20–30% would be adequate for future generations if the expected return on assets and the wage growth rate are at the same level. Meanwhile, if the former is 2% points larger than the latter, a replacement rate of 0% or full-scale privatization would be desirable.     

Population Ageing and Pension System Reform in China: A Computable Overlapping-Generations General Equilibrium Model Analysis

Over the next 50 years, China will face an increase of its old-age population by approximately three times. Such a demographic change may result in a large increase of pension payments, which would require a significant rise in the pension contribution rate. This also implies important intergenerational redistribution issues and may even harm living standards as a whole. This paper analyses for China the economic impact of an ageing population by means of a computable dynamic general equilibrium model with an overlapping generations structure. The paper explores the effect on the social security system and economic development of China under alternative scenarios for the benefit rates on pensions, retirement age and technological progress. Our research indicates that a pension reform plus positive technological progress can compensate for the menace of a decline in living standards for both seniors and working generations.     

Differentiating Indexation in Dutch Pension Funds

Funded social security programs are particularly vulnerable to economic and financial market shocks. As a consequence of the recent crisis, a large fraction of the Dutch pension funds had to submit restoration plans for the recovery of their buffers. Such plans will have to rely primarily on a mix of reduced benefit indexation and increased pension contributions. Hence, a discussion has emerged whether indexation should be differentiated across the various groups of participants in a pension fund. We investigate this issue numerically, developing an applied many-generation small open-economy OLG model with heterogeneous agents. The pension system consists of a first-pillar PAYG component and a second pillar with a pension fund. In our stochastic simulations, we hit the economy with a variety of unexpected demographic, economic and financial shocks. We compare uniform indexation of pension rights across all fund participants with alternatives such as status-contingent indexation in which pensions are protected against price inflation. While the aggregate welfare consequences are small, group-specific consequences are more substantial with the workers and future born losing and retirees benefitting from a shift away from uniform indexation. The exception is a scheme which links indexation directly to the fund’s asset performance. Under this scheme the retired benefit without other groups losing. The welfare effects are primarily the result of systematic welfare redistributions rather than of shifts in the benefits of risk sharing. Contribution rates always have to rise substantially from their initial levels to maintain the system’s sustainability. An increase in the retirement age that leaves existing pension rights untouched does little to avoid this rise with its adverse labour market consequences.     

Generational Accounting, Solidarity and Pension Losses

Summary The stock market collapse led to political tensions between generations due to the fuzzy definition of the property rights over the pension funds’ wealth. The problem is best resolved by the introduction of generational accounts. Modern consumption and portfolio theory shows that the younger generations should have the higher equity exposure due to their human capital. Stock market losses should be distributed smoothly over lifetime consumption by adjusting both current contributions and future entitlements. We present expressions for the substantial welfare losses involved in various practically relevant deviations from the optimal system. We are grateful to stimulating suggestions by Lans Bovenberg, Casper van Ewijk, Frank de Jong and by two anonymous referees.     

Rural to urban land conversion in China — How large is the over-conversion and what are its welfare implications?

The current system of converting farmland to urban land use in China can be characterized as a hybrid system that combines government controls with market-based transfers. In this paper we argue that this hybrid governance structure causes an over-conversion of farmland from the rural to the urban sector, as compared to a competitive market situation, and a welfare reallocation that discriminates against farmland owners. We develop a partial equilibrium model that can be used to examine the impact of the current hybrid governance structure on the over-conversion of farmland and to analyze the welfare changes for different groups of actors and the resulting net social welfare loss. Using a dataset with detailed information on farmland acquisitions and urban land transactions in Yingtan City in Jiangxi Province, we illustrate how this framework can be applied. Our results indicate an over-conversion of 33.5% of the total converted farmland in this city between 1999 and 2003. The welfare of farmland owners affected by the conversion decreased by 1.38 billion RMB, while the net social welfare loss equaled more than 270 million RMB during the same period. The local government obtained 380 million RMB of revenues by re-selling farmland as urban land through competitive conveyance mechanisms between 2002 and 2005, while the manufacturing sector gained an estimated 280 million RMB from buying land use rights at relatively low prices. We conclude that the current policy of increasing urban land conveyance through competitive mechanisms does not address two major underlying causes of over-conversion, and that protection of farmland would be better served by replacing the current hybrid rural to urban land market structure by a competitive land market.