Improving the Equity-Efficiency Trade-Off: Mandatory Savings Accounts for Social Insurance

In the modern welfare state a substantial part of an individual's tax bill is transferred back to the same individual taxpayer in the form of social transfers. This provides a rationale for financing part of social insurance through mandatory savings accounts. We analyze the behavioral and welfare effects of compulsory savings accounts in an intertemporal model with uncertainty, involuntary unemployment, endogenous retirement decisions, credit constraints, and heterogeneous agents. We show that the introduction of (early) retirement and unemployment accounts generates a Pareto improvement by enabling the government to provide lifetime income insurance and liquidity insurance in a more efficient manner.     

社会养老保险福利效应研究述评

提高国民福利是政府建立社会养老保险的最终目标。国外研究主要运用一般均衡方法构建代际交叠模型,从养老保险收入分配功能及其对经济增长(储蓄率和资本积累)的影响两个角度对不同养老保险模式的福利效应进行综合研究,研究成果十分丰富。然而,国内对如何在现有约束条件下实现国民福利最大化的探讨不够系统和深入。发展型福利思想为未来养老保险福利效应研究及政策改革提供了新的视角。     

Social security in the UK under New Labour: what did the Third Way mean for welfare reform?

In 1997, the Labour Party was elected in the UK with few explicitly articulated ideas about social security reforms. This paper reviews the large number of subsequent reforms to social security, and argues that some consistent themes have emerged. A commitment to keep to the tight spending plans of the previous, Conservative, administration left little scope for increases in benefit spending during the first two years in office. Since that time, increases in the generosity of some social security programmes have been directed towards achieving certain goals. An emphasis on encouraging paid work has been a consistent theme, whilst aims of reducing poverty rates for children and pensioners have been emphasised since 1999. Spending to achieve these goals has often been directed through means‐tested programmes, and there has been a related weakening of the link between paid National Insurance contributions and benefit entitlements. It remains to be seen whether reforms to the process of income assessment will increase take‐up.     

房地产税征收方案设计:收入分配效应及福利效应

以文献述评和2017年中国家庭金融调查数据为基础,设计由六档税率、三种免税方式、多项减免标准形成的126种房地产税征收方案,考察房地产税的收入分配效应和社会福利效应。结果表明：房地产税采用“面积+价值”综合免税方式的收入分配效应和福利效应较优。其中,减免面积标准须随税率提升而增加,福利效应受到免税方式、免税标准、税率及居民收入差距厌恶程度的综合影响。     

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.     

我国城镇居民收入分配的变动趋势:基于社会福利比较的视角

经济学研究的出发点是社会福利的最大化.通过不断放松社会福利函数的约束条件,依次应用洛伦茨优势比较、广义洛伦茨优势比较、均值一方差优势比较和社会福利指数比较等社会福利比较准则,对1985～2004年期间我国城镇居民收入分配变动状况进行比较和排列,研究结果表明:除在1987～1989年期间城镇居民收入分配状况存在轻微社会福利恶化外,居民收入分配的社会福利水平一直呈逐年上升趋势,且在大多数年份中社会福利存在帕累托改善,社会福利改善的成因是实际收入的增长足以补偿收入不平等的扩大.     

个体差异、企业特征、制度保护与流动人口社会保险可及性——基于“福利三角”理论模型的实证研究

"福利三角"理论是现代社会政策研究的重要范式,其也可运用于经验研究。本文基于"福利三角"理论视角,从个体差异、企业特征、制度保障三个维度,利用南开大学"2013年流动人口管理和服务对策研究问卷调查"数据,对流动人口社会保险可及性及其影响因素进行实证研究。分析发现,在个体特征方面,受教育程度、工作年限等对流动人口人力资本具有关键影响的因素,企业性质、行业类型等企业特征,劳动合同、合同协商、工会等制度保障因素对流动人口社会保险可及性具有显著影响。在此基础上,应提高流动人口社会保险可及性。     

做实养老个人账户完善制度模式的研究

养老保险个人账户的＂空账＂运行一直是影响养老保险制度发展和完善的瓶颈,也是社会普遍关注的突出问题。本文提出通过完善基本养老保险制度模式,解决个人账户＂空账＂问题的改革方案：将现行基本养老保险制度分为国家基本养老保险制度、地方养老保险制度、独立的个人账户养老金制度,再加上企业年金、商业人寿保险等,构成我国养老保障的制度体系。     

强制保险能否提高保险市场效率分析

本文以社会福利为衡量保险市场效率的标准,分析了实施强制保险是否有助于保险市场效率的提高。文章首先证明了在信息不对称的保险市场中存在着市场失灵现象;然后通过比较实施强制保险前后社会福利的差异,得出结论:实施强制保险有助于社会福利的改善,从而可以提高保险市场效率。     

城镇职工医疗保险个人账户制度起源的反思

本文从城镇职工医疗保险制度的实践历程、政策文件和文献资料的回顾三个方面进行分析,认为职工医疗保险个人账户制度产生于改革开放中主导的效率优先思想的宏观背景下,在没有理论、没有讨论也没有实践支持的情况下在行政力量推动下匆忙上马并固化。     

地区补贴差异、农民决策分化与农业保险福利再分配

受区域经济发展水平的制约,农业保险的补贴力度存在明显的地区差异:东部发达地区财政对农业保险的补贴力度大,而中西部欠发达地区受自身财政实力的制约补贴力度十分有限.补贴力度的不同将会影响农民参加农业保险的意愿,进而影响他们的生产决策,并最终影响到全体农民的福利分配.应发挥中央财政的调节作用,加大对中西部地区农业保险的扶持力...     

Redistributive taxation and social insurance

This paper studies the role of social insurance as a redistributive mechanism in presence of an optimal (linear or general) income tax. It considers a second-best setting with two unobservable individual characteristics: ability, measured by the wage rate and risk, measured by the probability of incurring a loss. It shows that both tax progressivity and the optimal level of social insurance crucially depend on the correlation between ability and risk.This paper has been prepared for the IIPF 51 st Congress held in Lisbon, August 21–24, 1995. The authors are grateful to F. Gahvari, M. Lundholm, M. Marchand, J.-C. Rochet, P. Sørenson and the referees for their comments.     

社会保障对收入分配差距的调节效应——基于陕西省宝鸡市住户调查数据的实证研究

社会保障具有重要的收入再分配功能,在很多国家社会保障都是调节居民收入分配差距最重要的手段。本文对陕西省宝鸡市住户调查数据的实证研究表明,社会保障转移性收入缩小了居民收入分配差距,使城乡居民收入的基尼系数下降了4.5%,其中城镇居民基尼系数下降22.8%,农村居民基尼系数下降1.82%。但由于农村居民获得的社会保障转移性收入远远低于城镇居民,从而导致城乡收入差距上升23.17%。为抑制收入分配差距的进一步扩大,中国应重视社会保障对收入分配的调节作用,进一步增加社会保障的财政投入。尤其要加大对农村社会保障的财政投入,尽快扭转社会保障对城乡收入差距的逆向调节。     

Social Security Design in the UK: What is optimal?

This paper uses a simple model of how households at different points on the income distribution make decisions about saving and labour supply to illustrate some of the problems government faces in designing social security systems. We show simulation results, which highlight the costs and benefits of alternative pension and income support regimes, and analyse what is happening in the UK in the light of the results.     

Intertemporally Dependent Preferences and the Welfare Cost of Capital Income Taxation

The welfare cost of capital income taxation is analyzed utilizing intertemporally dependent preference operationalized using a variable rate of time preference. It is shown that if households exhibit increasing marginal impatience, then the welfare cost of capital income taxation is inversely related to the elasticity of the rate of time preference with respect to consumption. Therefore, the welfare cost of capital income taxation reported using time additive preferences may not be robust. Numerical examples show that the use of time additive preferences could result in the welfare cost of capital income taxation to be overestimated by as much as 25%.