Would you like to shrink the welfare state? A survey of European citizens

The fundamental problems facing European welfare states – high unemployment and unsustainable public pensions plans in particular – have been in the political debate for years, so why have we seen so little reform? To find out, we surveyed the opinions of citizens in France, Germany, Italy and Spain on their welfare states and on various reform options. This is what we found. First, most workers underestimate the costs of public pensions, though they are aware of their unsustainability. Second, the status quo is a majoritarian outcome: a majority of citizens opposes cuts to social security and welfare spending, but also opposes further increases. Since population ageing without reform implies an automatic expansion, our results suggest that most citizens would favour reforms that stabilize but do not shrink the current welfare states. Third, many would welcome changes in the allocation of benefits. A large number of workers in Italy and Germany would be willing to opt out of public pensions and replace them with private pensions, though the details of how this scheme is formulated matter for its popularity. And many Italians and Spaniards would welcome an extension of the coverage of unemployment insurance. Fourth, conflicts over the welfare state are mainly shaped by the economic situation of the respondent, while political ideology plays a limited role. Disagreements are found along three dimensions: young versus old, rich versus poor, and 'outsider' versus 'insider' in terms of labour market status. From a practical point of view, this suggests that there is scope to bundle reforms strategically in order to build a large and mixed coalition of supporters.
— Tito Boeri, Axel Börsch-Supan and Guido Tabellini     

Towards new agreements on international trade liberalization

Zusammenfassung Zu neuen Abkommen über Liberalisierung des internationalen Handels. — Die Vielfalt der nichttarif?ren Handelshemmnisse steht ihrem allgemeinen und linearen Abbau—analog den Zollverhandlungen der Kennedy-Runde — bislang entgegen. In der vorliegenden Studie wird daher vorgeschlagen, für jedes Land einen ?Zolltarif der nichttarif?ren Handelshemmnisse? zu berechnen, indem auβertarif?re Maβnahmen in Form von Zoll?quivalenten quantifiziert werden. Dabei ist die zentrale Hypothese, daβ jedes Handelshemmnis die Differenz zwischen heimischen Erzeugerpreisen und Importpreisen vergr?βert; diese Differenz—gemessen in vom Hundert des Importpreises—ist das Zoll?quivalent. Die Methode der Quantifizierung sollte je nach Art der statistischen Daten gew?hlt werden. Drei M?glichkeiten werden vorgeführt, und zwar für homogene Produkte ein direkter Preisvergleich am Beispiel des Steinkohlebergbaus, für heterogene Produkte ein Elastizit?tsansatz am Beispiel der feinkeramischen Industrie und ein Vergleich von Warenk?rben am Beispiel der Textilindustrie. Abschlieβend werden m?gliche Divergenzen zwischen Protektionswirkungen und Protektionsabsichten untersucht.

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Resumen Hacia un nuevo acuerdo sobre la liberalizatión del comercio international. —La diversidad de barreras no arancelarias existente se ha mostrado como obstáculo a una desarme general y lineal análogo a las reducciones arancelarias en la ronda Kennedy. En el presente trabajo los autores proponen el establecimiento, en cada pais, de un ?arancel aduanero de las trabas no arancelarias? que se obtiene mediante la calculación de equivalentes arancelarios de aquellas trabas. La premisa central es que cualquier barrera a la importatión aumenta la diferencia entre los precios industriales domésticos y los de importación; esta diferencia, expresada como porcentaje del precio de importación, corresponde al equivalente arancelario. El método de cuantificación a aplicar deberá regirse por los datos estadfsticos disponibles. Los autores presentan très posibilidades, a saber: para productos homogéneos una comparación de precios directa, tomándose como ejemplo la industria extractiva del carbón, para productos heterogéneos un concepto de elasticidad, sirviendo de ejemplo la industria de la cerámica, y una comparación de la cesta de productos, utilizándose como ejemplo la industria textil. Finalmente los autores analizan posibles divergencias entre los efectos y las intenciones de medidas proteccionistas.

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Résumé Vers de nouveaux accords sur la libéralisation du commerce international. —La diversité des barrières non-tarifaires au commerce a jusqu’ à présent empêché leur réduction universelle et linéaire—conformément aux réductions tarifaires du ?Kennedy Round?. Dans l’article que voici on propose donc de calculer pour chaque pays un tarif douanier des barrières non-tarifaires en quantifiant les mesures non-tarifaires sous forme d’équivalents de tarifs. L’hypothèse qui en sert de base soutient que chaque barrière au commerce international augmente la différence entre les prix du marché national et ceux du marché mondial; cette différence — exprimée en pourcentages des prix d’importation—représente l’équivalent du tarif douanier. La méthode de quantification doit être adaptée aux données statistiques qu’on possède. Trois possibilités sont discutées en détail: pour les produits homogènes, la comparaison directe démontrée à l’exemple de l’industrie minière du charbon; pour les produits hétérogènes, un calcul d’élasticité demontre à l’exemple de l’industrie de poterie, et la comparaison de paniers de marchandises démontrée à l’exemple de l’industrie textile. Finalement, sont examinées les divergences possibles entre les effets du protectiónnisme et l’intention protectionniste.

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Riassunto Di nuovi accordi sulla liberalizzazione del commercio internazionale. —La molteplicit à degli ostacoli commerciali non tariffari sta finora in opposizione —analogamente aile trattative doganali del Kennedy-Runde—alla sua generale e lineare demolizione. Nel presente studio viene perció proposto di calcolare per ogni Paese una ?tariffa doganale degli ostacoli commerciali non tariffari?, mentre provvedimenti extratariffari sono quantificati in forma di equivalenze doganali. Inoltre l’ipotesi centrale è che ogni ostacolo commerciale ingrandisce la differenza tra prezzi di prodotti nazionali e prezzi d’importazione; questa differenza—misurata in per cento del prezzo d’importazione—è l’equivalenza doganale. Il metodo delia quantificazione dovrebbe essere scelto a seconda del genère dei dati statistici. Tre possibilit à sono presentate, e cioè per prodotti omogenei un diretto confronto dei prezzi sull’esempio dell’industria mineraria del carbone, per prodotti eterogenei un’impiego di elasticit à sull’esempio dell’industria di cerámica fine e un confronto di canestri di merci sull’esempio dell’industria tessile. In ultimo sono analizzate possibili divergenze tra effetti di protezione e intenzioni di protezione.

     

Aging, Asset Markets, and Asset Returns: A View From Europe to Asia

The extent of the demographic changes is dramatic especially in some Asian and European countries. This paper investigates the effect of aging on global asset markets and asset returns, focusing on markets for productive capital, and especially on interactions between European and Asian economic development. Aging has complex effects on the markets for real capital. If elderly people save less than younger people, interest rates will increase. At the same time, however, the younger generation becomes smaller, which reduces the demand for new investment. The equilibrium effect is thus uncertain. Our multicountry computational equilibrium model delivers a subtle picture: there will be some decline in the return from productive capital, but it is relatively small. We find noticeable interaction effects between labor market and pension reforms in Europe on the one hand, and the demographic and economic developments in Asia, especially India and China, on the other hand.     

Anonymity in the dictator game revisited

Giving in the dictator game has often been interpreted as evidence of other-regarding preferences. We suspect that giving is determined by subjects’ attempts to appear fair in the eyes of recipients and the experimenter. Therefore, we investigate behavior in the dictator game by using the randomized response technique to increase anonymity. Overall, 290 subjects participated in two experiments. The results demonstrate that the randomized response technique reduces giving to negligible amounts compared to the standard double blind condition. Thus, our results suggest that individuals closely follow egoistic motives in the dictator game when anonymity is convincingly implemented.     

How useful is the concept of the natural real rate of interest for monetary policy?

The natural rate of interest plays a key role in Wicksell's‘cumulative process’ as well as in modern monetaryequilibrium models of the business cycle. It constitutes a usefulconcept for the theoretical analysis of the interdependenceof monetary policy and economic fluctuations. However, the usefulnessof this concept for the practice of monetary policy is limited—especiallyowing to the fact that the natural real rate of interest andits law of motion cannot be measured with satisfying precision.