Distribution Of Welfare Research Articles

‘Unpittyed by any’? Royalist widows and the Crown, 1660–70

Abstract This article examines petitions for relief submitted by royalist war widows to Charles II during the first decade of the Restoration. While provincial magistrates were reluctant to award pensions to humble female war victims after 1660, the article demonstrates that numerous women were granted welfare by the Crown. The fact that many of these women were officers' widows raises significant questions regarding the impact of military rank and social status on the distribution of military welfare after 1660, as well as the contrasting attitude of the royalist regime towards the officer corps and the rank-and-file.

Evaluating the contribution of forest ecosystem services to societal welfare through linking dynamic ecosystem modelling with economic valuation

Trade-offs exist among the multiple ecosystem services (ES) generated by forests. Generally, wood production conflicts with the provisioning of public-good ES such as the storage of carbon, nutrient retention and conservation of biodiversity. Recognizing that forests generate both private- and public-good ES implies that forestry should be optimized to maximize the contribution of forests to societal welfare. Here we develop an integrated approach for evaluating the contribution of forest ES to welfare. Our approach links the results from dynamic ecosystem modelling to economic valuation and benefit-cost analysis to evaluate the impacts of alternative forestry practices on welfare. We apply the approach to a Norway spruce forest in southern Sweden. We show that current practices are not maximizing societal welfare, because of conflicts in the optimal choice of practices from society’s and forest owners’ perspectives, and the distribution of welfare between generations. In particular, intensifying biomass production is shown to reduce welfare due to the concomitant degradation of public-good ES, while welfare would improve through expansion of continuous cover forestry. We anticipate that this type of approach will aid the sustainable development of forestry, by informing decision makers of the impacts of alternative forestry practices on societal welfare.

Optimal control for transboundary pollution under ecological compensation: A stochastic differential game approach

Abstract To account for previously ignored, yet widely observed uncertainty in nature's capability to replenish the natural environment in ways that should inform ideal design of ecological compensation (EC) regimes, this study constructs a stochastic differential game (SDG) model to analyze transboundary pollution control options between a compensating and compensated region. Equilibrium strategies in the stochastic, two player game inform optimal control theory and reveal a welfare distribution mechanism to form the basis of an improved cooperative game contract. A case-based numerical example serves to verify the theoretical results and supports three key insights. First, accounting for various random disturbance factors, the probabilistic pollutant stock in Stackelberg non-cooperative game exceeds that of a cooperative game situation. Second, the EC mechanism provides long-term, effective incentives only when the marginal losses of environmental damage in the compensating region are more than twice that of the compensated region. Achieving a Pareto optimal equilibrium relies upon the attainment of a dynamic allocation ratio derived from the analysis of a robust welfare allocation mechanism. Third, cross-region cooperation reliably outperforms Stackelberg non-cooperation due to either overwhelming incumbent economic interests or high abatement costs. This study illuminates the importance of balancing both parties' interests within an EC agreement while reducing uncertainty around unobserved environmental factors during ex-ante negotiations.

IMPLEMENTASI PROGRAM KELUARGA HARAPAN (PKH) DALAM RANGKA PEMERATAAN KESEJAHTERAAN MASYARAKAT DI KABUPATEN BUNGO

ABSTRACT
 Policy of Assistance to the Family Hope Program (PKH) through Law Number 40 of 2004 concerning the National Social Security System which was followed up with Regulation of the Minister of Social Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia Number 1 of 2018 concerning PKH. One way that has been done by the government to prosper and reduce poverty by giving assistance to shortage society.
 The aim of this study was to identify the Implementation of the Family Hope Program in the framework of the distribution of community welfare in Bungo District. The study used descriptive method with qualitative. Data analysis using data collection, data reduction, presentation and drawing conclusions and verification.
 The results showed that the implementation of the policies carried out by related government agencies was improving the quality of life in the fields of education and health, but the reality in the field was found that the implementation of the family of hope program in Bungo district had not been able to fully realize equitable welfare for the community, this was indicated from the distribution of funds that had not been equitable and injustice in determining the participants receiving PKH funds.
 
 Keywords: Implementation, Family Hope Program (PKH), Community Welfare.

The development of “Islamic welfare regime” in South East Asia

PurposeUsing evidence from Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Indonesia, the purpose of this paper is to explore how Islamic welfare regime notion evolves in a South East Asian (SEA) context.Design/methodology/approachTo gain a broad frame of reference in discussing Islamic welfare regimes in SEA, this paper employs a combined political-economic and cultural approach to analyze how Islamic welfare ethics in Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Indonesia are developed. The specific criterion used to make a comparative analysis of these countries is an interconnection between four levels of Islamic welfare actors (state, market, community and household/relatives) in providing social welfare.FindingsMalaysia and Indonesia have demonstrated the most balanced form of “Islamic welfare diamond” in the relationship between welfare actors, even as the state-centered welfare initiative continues to be expanded, while Brunei has taken a different route. A monarchical political system underpinned by high economic growth has enabled the state to play a major role in welfare distribution, rather than other welfare actors. For this reason, Malaysia and Indonesia are described as having an “Islamic inclusive welfare regime,” while Brunei is reported to have an “Islamic welfare state regime.”Originality/valueFor the purpose of theoretical advancements, there is no doubt that this paper has proposed an alternative framework to developing an understanding of how the Islamic ethical code is articulated in a wide range of welfare configurations within the “South East Asian context.”

A fixed-population problem for the person-affecting restriction

According to the person-affecting restriction, one distribution of welfare can be better than another only if there is someone for whom it is better. Extant problems for the person-affecting restriction involve variable-population cases, such as the nonidentity problem, which are notoriously controversial and difficult to resolve. This paper develops a fixed-population problem for the person-affecting restriction. The problem reveals that, in the presence of incommensurable welfare levels, the person-affecting restriction is incompatible with minimal requirements of impartial beneficence even in fixed-population contexts.

Distributional effects of social security reforms: The case of France

AbstractThis paper assesses the impact of two social security reforms using a calibrated, dynamic life cycle model. It quantifies the long‐run distributional impact of two sets of reforms in France: (1) the 2013 reform of Prime Minister Ayrault, which modified the parameters of a defined benefit (DB) plan, and (2) a hypothetical reform that changes the system to a notional defined contribution (NDC) plan, similar to that in Italy. First, on aggregate welfare, the Ayrault reform and the hypothetical switch to NDC yield contrasting results. The Ayrault reform improves aggregate welfare, which is not the case for the NDC reform. Welfare comparisons are made with respect to the “benchmark economy,” where increases in life expectancy occur and are dealt with only through a higher contribution rate. Second, both reforms yield unequal distributions of welfare changes, with low‐skill workers on the losing end. Under the Ayrault reform, low‐skill workers delay retirement by two years, to age 62. Under NDC reform, pensions for low‐skill workers fall substantially as inequalities during the work life translate directly into inequalities in pensions. The switch to an NDC scheme leads to a more unequal society in terms of asset and welfare distribution.

A two-period unionized mixed oligopoly model: public–private wage differentials and “Eurosclerosis” reconsidered

In the context of a two-period unionized mixed oligopoly, we propose that—due to the public sector’s role in the market—public–private wage differentials in favor of the public sector employees emerge over the business cycle, under either an asymmetric or a symmetric firing restrictions regime across the public and the private sector. Under the former regime, firing costs are higher than (equal to) hiring costs in the public (private) sector, while under the latter regime firing/hiring costs are equal everywhere. The structure of the emerging product and labor market equilibria, as well as the volume and the distribution of welfare, are however quite different under the two regimes. In contrast to conventional beliefs, the asymmetric regime, as compared to the symmetric regime, entails higher aggregate output and employment over the business cycle. Moreover, a typical measure of social welfare dictates that the asymmetric regime should be sustained unless demand conditions significantly deteriorate during the recession.

Processes of Regional Configuration and Localities of Uruguay 1900-1960

The objective of the article is to describe the social structure of Uruguay at the beginning of the sixties, presenting the social differences that configured the level of urban centers or localities since the beginning of the 20th century. The willing is to identify what historical processes would have intervened to have institutionalized a highly heterogeneous distribution of welfare in the territory.BR The sources of information are four: (i) the population censuses of 1908 and 1963; (ii) the agricultural censuses of 1908, 1951, 1956 and 1961; (iii) the work of historical demography; and (iv) the indices published by the General Directorate of Statistics and Censuses in 1971 and 1989. Due to the lack of a dictionary of the localities, the authors matched these sources.BR The regional configuration processes analyzed here are: the departmentalization of the territory; the agriculturization; the industrialization and the balnearización. In each case, the regional and local impact of the political, economic and social transformation is analyzed. The article dedicate a wide space to describe the changes in the entity, the legal status, the territorial distribution and the wellbeing of the localities, marking especially those under 1500 inhabitants, which make up an important micro-urbanization of the country.BR The foundation of 70% of the localities occurred during the reformist period that locates that project as a type of “social democratic” State with its “Bismarkian” type traits. The institutionalization of these territories is based on their precarious and very poor character, the inequality in the most elementary welfare enjoyed by the established towns and cities increases.BR The processes of spatialization that reconfigured the territory during this time, contributed to the urbanization and population relocation, but in a framework in the political project of the “small model country” did not plan on the territory, the state have no special attention to correct the asymmetries in local welfare distribution structures.BR We finished with the hypothesis that beyond the social advances of the “Battlista” period, the territorial inequality of opportunities has grown between 1908 and 1963 because the lack of a public planification.

Universal basic income and cognitive capitalism: A post-work dystopia in the making?

The rise of the gig economy and the prospect of increased automation has led to renewed calls for the implementation of a Universal Basic Income scheme from a variety of spokespeople on the left, including notable journalists, academics and politicians. Weeks, Mason, Srnicek and Williams and others suggest that such a re-orientation of welfare distribution would not only mitigate the effects of these tectonic changes to the nature of labour, but it might in fact facilitate a break away from neoliberal capitalism and towards a post-work condition. Building upon the work of Universal Basic Income detractors such as Pitts and Dinerstein, this article brings into question the likelihood of these claims. Universal Basic Income’s advocates speak of the freedom to be unlocked by Universal Basic Income: but the freedom to do what and for whom? The article addresses the increasing significance for the process of valorisation today of digital ‘free labour’, and thus explores the idea that Universal Basic Income might have presented itself at this current juncture less to be a vehicle to a utopian future and more to be a handmaid for capitalism as its mode of production evolves. After utilising Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror to depict a dystopian imaginary of what a Universal Basic Income-future might thus really look like, the article concludes by questioning how we might rescue the scheme as a leftist project: attending to Guattari’s insights into how to resist capitalism’s subjectivation, as well as Fuchs’ vision for an ‘alternative Internet’.

The THE CONCEPT OF THE LAND REFORM IN CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE JAVANESE COMMUNITY

The THE CONCEPT OF THE LAND REFORM IN CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE JAVANESE COMMUNITY

The Effectiveness of Zakat in Developing Muslims in Malaysia

Zakat is the third of the five pillars of Islamic faith, relating to wealth and welfare of the society that helps to close the gap between the poor and the rich. The efficient and systematic zakat management is able to propel it’s potential as an instrument of human developments especially among Muslims. The optimum utilization of zakat funds is essential to improving the quality and potential of every Muslim. In Malaysia, zakat is administrated by the Islamic Religious Council (IRC) in every state. The IRC is responsible for determining the beneficiary's qualification and the type of relief that is appropriate based on the background of each recipient so that the relief can be utilized to fulfill their needs. This study aims to assess the potential of zakat in developing the quality of Muslims in Malaysia by highlighting the practice of each IRC in distributing relief to each qualified zakat recipient. The distribution statistics and the form of programs provided by the IRC were analyzed descriptively to see the potential of zakat itself practically in improving the quality of Muslims. The study found that the IRC has provided various programs aimed at improving the quality of asnaf through equitable distribution of economics, social welfare distribution, human capital production and upgrading of education. Thus, every Muslim, especially zakat payers, should take the opportunity to equally engage with the IRC to ensure that zakat funds can be optimized for the developments of Muslims in Malaysia.

Board Capabilities and the Mediating Roles of Absorptive Capacity on Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Practices

Public listed companies in Malaysia have been pressured tremendously to accept the engagement of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), but the engagement is still low based on previous studies. ESG will enhance company financial performance, image as well as the ability to attract and retain the workplace which contributes to the market value in the economy. This shows that ESG engagement improve company brand image and reputation, increase customer loyalty and sales as well as productivity. Corporate governance is seen to be the key role to ensure that companies engage with ESG practices since it can enhance the value creation and improve financial performance. Even the present investors are bound to look for non-financial performance elements like corporate governance and environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices that the company engaged since it is an evidence of effective corporate governance. Based on today’s global and innovation-driven economy which also include social and environmental matters consisting of welfare distribution and growth, it is said that countries need to be more efficient in finding new ways to enhance the environmental policy promoting greater change and dynamics. Thus, they must find new ways to develop an innovation policy to emphasise the knowledge-driven economy on the capacity to adapt and adopt best practices, create, diffuse and transform innovation and knowledge. The absorptive capacity will recognise the ability of the individual and company in adopting the innovation which play an essential part in determining the characteristics of good corporate governance to ensure best ESG practices in the company. This paper examines the relationship between board capabilities and ESG practices through the mediating role of absorptive capacity. Board size, board diversity and board independent are the board capabilities that the paper investigates. Collection of information and data was from company's listed in FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia from the year 2012 to 2016. The results from the regression analysis show that ESG practices have a significant relationship with board size, board diversity, board independence and absorptive capacity. On top of that, absorptive capacity is perceived to have influence on board diversity and board independence towards ESG practices. The results provide empirical evidence and guidance in identifying areas of problems in the current policy and amend it for a better policy in promoting sustainability.

The impact of unionization costs when firm-selection matters

How does an increase in unionization costs, i.e. costs which arise when workers are organized by a union, affect the productivity distribution of active firms, wage inequality and welfare? In this paper, we build a model with costly, endogenous unionization, heterogeneous firms as well as free market entry/exit to analyze these questions. If unionization costs are relatively low (high), we find that an increase reduces (raises) average productivity and welfare. Additionally, we find a hump-shaped relationship between unionization costs and wage inequality. These results suggest that policies aiming at increasing unionization costs could worsen economic performance.

Sharing a River with Downstream Externalities

We consider the problem of efficient emission abatement in a multi polluter setting, where agents are located along a river in which net emissions accumulate and induce negative externalities to downstream riparians. Assuming a cooperative transferable utility game, we seek welfare distributions that satisfy all agents’ participation constraints and, in addition, a fairness constraint implying that no coalition of agents should be better off than it were if all non-members of the coalition would not pollute the river at all. We show that the downstream incremental distribution, as introduced by Ambec and Sprumont (2002), is the only welfare distribution satisfying both constraints. In addition, we show that this result holds true for numerous extensions of our model.

The THE CONCEPT OF THE LAND REFORM IN CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE JAVANESE COMMUNITY

The THE CONCEPT OF THE LAND REFORM IN CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE JAVANESE COMMUNITY

The impact of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act on the spatial distribution of high productivity households and economic welfare

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 capped state and local tax deductions. We show that this new cap primarily affects households in the top percentile of the income distribution residing in high-tax, high-cost cities. We develop a new dynamic spatial equilibrium model to evaluate the impact of this policy change on the distribution of economic activity and aggregate welfare. We show that the tax reform is likely to lead to a relocation of older high-productivity households to low-cost cities. If local agglomeration externalities depend on these high-productivity households, the tax reform may substantially lower aggregate income.

Comment on “The impact of the tax cut and jobs act on the spatial distribution of high productivity households and economic welfare”, by Daniele Coen-Pirani and Holger Sieg

As part of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions (SALT) was imposed for federal tax returns. The authors first show that this increased the relative tax burden of the highest earners in high tax states by 3%. Motivated by this fact, the authors develop a spatial equilibrium model where individuals choose to live in “superstar” cities, which offer higher chances of becoming a highly productive worker but have higher taxes, or ordinary cities, where it is less likely to become a high type worker but taxes are lower. In their model, one’s income profile is determined when young. Therefore, there is an incentive to live in the superstar city when young, to increase the chance of becoming a high type. After one's income profile is fixed, the high types have an incentive to move to the ordinary city due to the tax differentials. They calibrate this model to understand the effects of the SALT deduction cap as part of the TCJA. The results depend on the extent of the endogeneity of the productivity advantage in the superstar city.

A Study of the Relationship between the Citizen’s Attitude of Welfare and Philanthropic Behaviors: Focusing on Donation and Volunteer Participation

본 연구의 목적은 시민의 복지태도가 나눔행동에 미치는 영향력을 확인하는 것이다. 이를 위해 서울시와 서울연구원이 서울시 거주 3,019가구를 조사한 2015 서울복지실태조사 데이터를 활용해 시민들이 가진 4가지 복지태도 : 성장과 분배, 선택적 복지와 보편적 복지, 복지지출에 대한 개인과 정부의 책임, 정부복지정책 신뢰수준이 기부와 자원봉사 참여에 미치는 영향을 확인하였다. 분석방법으로는 두 개의 이항종속변수 사이에 존재할 수 있는 상호의존성을 반영해 효율적인 추정을을 가능하게 해주는 이변량 프로빗 모형을 사용하였다. 연구결과 성장보다 분배를 중요하게 인식할수 록, 정부복지정책에 대한 신뢰가 높을수록 기부에 적극적으로 참여하였고, 복지지출에 대한 정부의 책임을 중요하게 인식할수록 기부에 소극적인 것으로 나타났다. 그리고, 보편적 복지 정책에 대한 중요성 중요하게 인식할수록 자원봉사 참여에 소극적인 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구는 연구의 성과가 부족한 복지에 대한 개인 인식과 나눔 행동 사이의 관계에 대해 실증적인 분석을 하였고, 기부와 자원봉사 행동에 대한 상호의존성을 반영할 수 있는 분석방법을 소개했다는 점에서 의의를 갖는다.The purpose of the study is to identify the influence that the citizen’s attitude of welfare exerts on philanthropic behaviors. Specifically, the study has identified the influences that the citizen’s attitude on the four things, that is, growth and distribution, targeted welfare and universal welfare, the responsibility for welfare expenses, and the trust in the governmental welfare policy, exert on donations and participation in volunteer work. For this purpose, the study used the data from the 2015 Seoul Welfare Survey which was conducted with 3,019 households in Seoul. And for its analytical method, the study employed Bivariate Probit model which enables efficient estimation by reflecting the interdependence that may exist between the two binomial dependent variables. The study showed that people who consider welfare distribution more importantly than economic growth and those who put greater trust in the governmental welfare policy more actively participated in donation, and that those who more strongly believe the governmental responsibility for welfare were more passive in participating in donation, and that those who more strongly believe the importance of universal welfare policy were more passive in participating in volunteer activities. This study has performed an empirical analysis on the relationship between the public perception of welfare and philanthropic behaviors and is significant in that it has introduced a new analytical method that can reflect the interdependence between donation and volunteer participation.

Applied welfare analysis for discrete choice with interval-data on income

This paper concerns empirical measurement of Hicksian consumer welfare under interval-reported income. Bhattacharya (2015, 2018a) has shown that for discrete choice, welfare distributions resulting from a hypothetical price-change can be expressed as closed-form transformations of choice probabilities. However, when income is interval-reported, as is the case in many surveys, the choice probabilities, and hence welfare distributions are not point-identified. We derive bounds on average welfare in such scenarios under the assumption of a normal good. A finding of independent interest is a set of Slutsky-like shape restrictions which are linear in average demand, unlike those for continuous choice. A parametric specification of choice probabilities facilitates imposition of these Slutsky conditions, and leads to computationally simple inference for the partially identified features of welfare. In particular, the estimand is shown to be directionally differentiable, so that recently developed bootstrap methods can be applied for inference. Under mis-specification, our results provide a ”best parametric approximation” to demand and welfare. These methods can be used for inference in more general settings where a class of set-identified functions satisfy linear inequality restrictions, and one wishes to conduct inference on functionals thereof. We illustrate our theoretical results using a simulation exercise based on a real dataset where actual income is observed. We artificially introduce interval-censoring of income, calculate bounds for the average welfare effects of a price-subsidy using our methods, and find that they perform favorably in comparison with estimates obtained using actual income.