Social Security Model Research Articles

Migration and Social Protection in China (review)

Reviewed by: Migration and Social Protection in China Peter Yang (bio) Ingrid Nielsen and Russell Smyth, editors. Migration and Social Protection in China. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Company, 2008. x, 265 pp. Hardcover $69.00, isbn 978-981-279-049-1. This volume is a collection of twelve essays that critically examine a unique major social phenomenon in the transformation of a fast growing China—rural-to-urban migrant workers and their social protection. Contributors to this volume, academics specializing on this topic in China and abroad, scrutinized carefully the existing social security programs and arrangements and proposals for improved social security coverage for these migrant workers. China's economic boom has attracted an estimated 120–200 million young people from the countryside to cities for work. Despite the important role these internal immigrants play as the engine driving the country's rapid economic growth, little or no effort has been made to provide a social security regime for them until recently. The uniqueness of China's internal migration manifests itself in the chilling fact that although these rural migrant workers can work and live in the cities, they are discriminated against by employers and society. They lack any [End Page 556] social security net because they lack a city hukou, a residence permit similar to a green card for living and working in the city. The ultimate social security net for them is to return to their home villages. The recent U.S. and world financial and economic crisis made the pressing social needs of these young women and men even more obvious. The urgent and current significance of the issues related to this topic makes this well-researched publication a major addition to the existing literature on this topic. Chapter 1 introduces a general picture of the issues concerning China's migrant workers and the essays in this edition. The authors of this chapter—who are also the authors of the concluding chapter 12 and the editors of the volume—first provide an overview of the migrant workers' social, work, and living conditions, and the Chinese government's recent reform agenda related to improving their conditions. Then, they introduce each of the eleven other chapters in four major subjects: social protection and social justice, and migrant participation in social protection schemes; the role of the household; state and market in providing social protection; and future directions. Chapter 2 deals with the dilemmas the migrant workers face working and living in the cities without legal citizen status. It also analyzes the implications of these dilemmas, not only for these people themselves, but also for China's social stability, sustained growth, and competitive advantages in the international markets. This analysis is of great importance for China, especially when its economy is forced to move from low-cost manufacturing into higher value-added production. Chapter 3 examines the significant gap between the rhetoric of social justice and the implementation of reforms aimed at improving the social conditions of migrant workers. The authors of the chapter compare the main arguments present in policy reforms against realities as recorded in the 2004 report paper by Institute of Labor Science researchers. The authors acknowledge the reform agenda of the Chinese government, but also point out that regulations are enforced only in an intermittent manner. Furthermore, the improvements are extremely limited. Chapter 4 compares the individual strengths and weaknesses of three social security models designed for rural migrant workers. The integrated urban social insurance model in Beijing, Guangdong, and part of Jiangsu is simple to administer, but too costly to be attractive to low-wage migrant workers. It is virtually impossible to expect it to have a high participation rate of migrant workers. The social insurance model specifically designed for migrant workers is suited for this population, but complex to administer. The dedicated rural model integrated with rural social insurance is also suited to the needs of migrant workers, but only feasible in developed rural industrialization areas such as Jiangsu Province near Shanghai. Chapters 5 through 11 offer case studies exploring the participation of migrant workers in various social security programs. These studies find much lower levels of participation with migrant workers than with urban...

Sobre a Política de Combate à Pobreza no Governo Lula

O artigo discute o principal programa que integra a política decombate à pobreza desenvolvida pelo governo Lula. Para efeito de comparação,no que diz respeito ao tipo de benefício, às condições de acesso e ao valortransferido, é traçado um perfil do sistema de proteção social construído noBrasil antes da ascensão desse governo ao poder, especialmente em relação àPrevidência e a Assistência Social. O artigo aborda, ainda, os principais traçosdo mercado de trabalho e da distribuição de renda no Brasil, com o intuitodiscutir qual pode ser o impacto sobre a renda dos ocupados da implantaçãodo Bolsa Família.

Annuitizing Social Security and Medicare

In today's Social Security and Medicare business model, children and grandchildren pay six dollars of current taxes to provide six dollars of current benefits for their parents and grandparents. If we convert to a business model which uses compound interest so every generation pre-funds their own annuities, then we will pay just one dollar of current premiums to provide six dollars of future benefits. Compound interest will provide the other five. This article explores how to immediately accomplish the conversion using only the resources we already apply to these programs, and how the resulting massive amount of future resources freed up can greatly improve all forms of social insurance as well as lead us out of the entire mortgage/housing/credit crisis/financial mess.

Social security in a globalizing world

The main burden of the paper is to argue for enlarging both the concept and the coverage of social security, especially in developing countries, to address the twin problems of “deficiency” and “adversity”. The two parts of this enlarged concept of social security are Basic Social Security (BSS) and Contingent Social Security (CSS). To strengthen the argument, lessons have been highlighted from the historical experience of Western countries, where the State played a leading role. Having argued for the extension of BSS, the paper also deals with the extension of CSS. This is best done through the informal economy, which employs a large majority of workers in developing countries. While the primacy of the State has been highlighted, the paper develops a typology of various social security models that could be used to study and understand the existing arrangements as well as the potentialities for extension.

Informatique

Health care systems ideally include universal access to comprehensive prepaid medical care along with health promotion and disease prevention. National health insurance and national health services of various models have evolved in the developed world and increasingly in developing countries as well. Some models, such as the Bismarckian social security model and the Bereidge National Health Service model, or National Health insurance such as in pioneered in Canada, are used by a number of countries. The common features are based on principles of national responsibility and solidarity for health, social solidarity for providing funding and searching for effective ways of providing care. Various universal systems of health coverage exist in all industrialized countries, except in the United States which has a mix of public and private insurance but with high percentages of uninsured and poorly insured. Health reform is a continuing process as all countries aspire to assure health care for all. Aging populations, increasing costs, advancing and increasing technology all require nations to modify and adapt organization and financing systems of health care, health protection and promotion.

Social security personal-account participation with government matching

This paper examines the potential impact of government matching contributions on personal-account participation in the President's Commission on Strengthening Social Security's Model 3 for Social Security reform. Given the government's choice of four plan-design parameters, the magnitude of the match is determined solely by the differential return personal-account assets receive above the notional return, referred to as the ‘personal-account premium’, akin to the equity premium. The impact of matching on personal-account participation is simulated for older workers (ages 40 to 65) in the first wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) using empirical estimates from a structural model of the impact of employer matching on participation in corporate 401(k) plans. For a personal-account premium of three percentage points, which implies a match rate of 7.5% for middle- to lower-income workers, the simulations imply that 72% of mid-career and older workers would participate in voluntary personal accounts. The response of participation to matching is very inelastic; it seems not unlikely that participation by mid-career and older workers would achieve the mid-range assumption by the Commission of 67%. There is substantial heterogeneity in participation across subsets of older workers: participation would be the lowest for low-educated, minority, female, and unmarried mid-career and older workers.

Social security reform: Does partial privatization make sense for China?

By the year 2025, one quarter of the world's population over age 60 will be living in China, a nation in the process of partially privatizing its social security system. This article presents a brief history of social security policy in China, describes the current scheme, presents an analysis of the pros and cons of this scheme, and asks why China is currently on the road to adopting policy changes that are so strongly influenced by the neoliberal social security model being advanced by the World Bank. Social security policy in China is being driven largely by demographic considerations, but it is also being influenced by factors linked to globalization. The plan to partially privatize the nation's social security system will put at risk many vulnerable categories of the population, particularly women, low-wage workers, those in the informal sector, and recent immigrants from rural areas.

Social Security, Poverty Reduction and Development

This paper is written as a think piece to strengthen the ILO's campaign to promote the extension of the coverage of social security. In so doing, the paper has attempted to put forward a number of arguments for enlarging both the concept and the coverage of social security especially in developing countries. It argues that social security should address the twin problems of deficiency and adversity. As such the concept of social security has been enlarged to include, what may be called, Basic Social Security (BSS) to take care of deficiency and Contingent Social Security (CSS) to meet contingencies. Without addressing BSS, it is unlikely to meet with success in the case of extending CSS. To strengthen the argument the lessons from the historical experience of western countries have been highlighted. The historical experience also shows that issues of social security have received the attention of the state much before industrialization and graduation into rich countries. There is also evidence to show that extension of social security has been possible mainly by state intervention of one kind or another. Having argued for the extension of BSS, the paper also deals with the extension of CSS. This is best done through the informal economy, which employs a large majority of workers in developing countries. While the primacy of the role of the state has been highlighted, the paper has developed a typology of various social security models that could be used to study and understand the existing arrangements as well as the potentialities for extension of social security in the developing countries. It is hoped that this typology could be used with reference to the specific context of countries and/or regions. Finally the paper has made a number of suggestions for the study of alternative models and analysis of public policies for extension of social security. The need for documenting best practices has been emphasized.

EU enlargement and social security

There is no uniform model of social security in the EU-15 and the inclusion of new member states will make the social security landscape in the EU even more diversified. Social security systems in the present EU are currently facing a number of problems due, among other things, to unemployment and demographic changes. Will EU enlargement help to solve these problems? Will it create new ones?

Social Security: Learning from global experience to reach the poor

This paper discusses the central features of four models of social security -- classical, socialist, transition, and developing country -- looking at the coverage provided and the institutions and financing of social security in different contexts. It explores different ways of providing social security to the entire population in developing countries, and particularly ways of meeting the priority social security needs of the excluded majority in poor countries.

Social Security Priorities and Patterns: A Global Perspective

Social Security Priorities and Patterns: A Global Perspective

The vulnerable life course: poverty and social assistance among middle-aged and older women

In Europe, older women are more likely than older men to be living in poverty, and the contrast is directly related to their domestic roles and labour market position during earlier phases of their life courses. Despite Sweden's well-developed social security system, the generalisation applies to its older women. This paper examines the current incomes and life courses of 14 middle-aged and older Swedish women who have periodically had to rely on social assistance. Their circumstances and living conditions are considered in relation to their earlier lives and to the contextual conditions of the country's welfare state. Both life course and feminist perspectives are applied. All the interviewed women had been the main carers of their children, and had worked part-time or in low-paid jobs. Their formal employment histories have been the foundation of their vulnerable economic situation in older age, which the Swedish social security system does little to combat. Unless the bases and assumptions of the social security model are changed, there will continue to be many older women who live a life of poverty or near poverty.

Poverty, social exclusion and health in Portugal

People in Portugal have never been so healthy. Nevertheless, there are great differences in health status between social groups and regions. In 1994, Portugal was the country with the second worst level of inequality in terms of income distribution and with the highest level of poverty in the European Union (EU). Poverty in Portugal affects mainly the elderly and women (especially in single parent families). Beyond these groups, there are the children, the ethnic minorities and the homeless. Substance abusers, the unemployed, and ex-prisoners are also strongly affected by situations of social exclusion and poverty. Although poverty has been an important issue on the political agenda in Portugal, it shows a worrying tendency to resist traditional Social Security interventions. In the late 1990s, however, welfare coverage rates appear to have risen. To what extent can poverty cause a worsening of health status? Is there any sustainable positive association between welfare and improved health status? How, to whom and when should actions to improve the health status of the disadvantaged be addressed, without subverting the health status of the rest of the population. It is also necessary to reveal the consequences of poor health to individuals, families and communities in terms of income, social empowerment and the ability to fulfil other needs. Finally, reflection on the role and effectiveness of traditional social security models is necessary, in order to improve the impact and adequacy of its interventions. The goal of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge about disadvantage, the current health situation of the most vulnerable groups in Portuguese society—those affected by poverty, deprivation and social exclusion—and to detect the constraints on access to health and health care.

Practical and Academic Aspects of Social Work Development in Lithuania

The main objective of the article is to present the development of social work in Lithuania. The conception of social work and the social work definition problems are discussed in the first part. The absence of general social work theory and multfifunctionality of social work practice are obstacles for the unified conception of social work. The development of social work profession is discussed in the second part of the article. The roots of social work are the pseudoaltruistic behavior of animals and the proper altruistic behavior of hominids. There are eight stages of social work development in Lithuania according to author: GDL and the Union with Poland, period of Tsarist occupation, interwar independence, Models of Soviet social security, Formal acceptance of the notion of social work, professionalisation of social work, professional social work, social euro-integration. The contextual factors of social work in Lithuania are discussed in the third part of the article. The main contextual factors of social work are: socio-economical situation, legislative basis, international context, social service givers. The research in social work and the future development of social work discipline in Lithuania is discussed in the last part.

The Lithuanian social policy model

Social policy models may be categorized not only according to their economic or philosophical contents but also from the political science aspect. Absolute models do not really exists; nevertheless, countries are grouped into different welfare state types according to certain features. The formation of specific social policy models is mainly determined by the ideological and practical orientation of individual political parties. In West European countries, the formation of the social policy types took place throughout the twentieth century under the influence of various structural and value factors. Conversely, Eastern European countries (including Lithuania) started developing a new social security model as late as in the last decade of the century, in adverse conditions of transition from totalitarian socialism to market economy and democracy. The Lithuanian social policy model and the sociopolitical environment that has determined it is an interesting object of study. Thus the purpose of the present analysis is to define the type of social security model created in Lithuania as well as its components and supporters. According to many macro-social indicators Lithuania occupies an intermediate position among the countries of Eastern Europe. The definition of the Mediterranean model (Makinen) provided an important impetus to the elucidation of the question as to the type of the Lithuanian social security model and the extent of the political parties' contribution to its formation. The above definition is of great relevance to the evaluation of social security theory and practice of not only Southern Europe but Latin America and Eastern Europe (including Lithuania) as well. It is namely in these countries that clienteleist (lobbyist, acquaintance and family) ties are most important in attempting to adapt the legislation to narrow clan needs or to circumvent or amend the laws. In these countries social inequality is great and one may find much poverty there. 1 At the turn of the twenty-first century the Lithuanian state is characterized by such a Mediterranean-type structure in which the ideas

A Structural Model of Social Security's Disability Determination Process

We estimate a multistage sequential logit model reflecting the structure of the disability determination process of the Social Security Administration (SSA). The model is estimated using household survey information exact-matched to SSA records on disability adjudications from 1989 to 1993. Under program provisions, different criteria dictate outcomes at different steps of the determination process. We find that, without the multistaged structural approach, effects of many important health, disability, and vocational factors are not readily discernible. As a result, split-sample predictions of overall allowance rates from the sequential model perform considerably better than do those for the conventional allowed/denied logit regression.

American congressional considerations: Social security reforms and what can be learnt from abroad

This paper will broadly discuss the social security reform experiences in Australia, Chile and the United Kingdom. All three countries have shared since the beginning of the 1980s a political and economic will to ‘grasp the thorny nettle of social security reform’. The successes and otherwise of these international social security models provide a useful ‘blueprint’ for the USA in its ongoing discussions over the future of social security reform. This paper largely concentrates on the experiences generated by Australia in moving towards a more fully funded approach to its retirement needs in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Additionally details are provided on the Chilean and British social security reform initiatives. While economic and demographic comparisons are not as strong as those with Australia, policy makers in the USA would be well served in looking at what lessons can be gained from these two models.As a former International Research Manager for the Office of Fair Trading in the UK and a regulator of retirement products in Australia, the author considers it very important to comprehend the experiences of how Australia, Chile and the UK have fostered individual retirement accounts. Certainly it can be argued that the following international experiences, combined with the realities of an increasingly ageing ‘baby boomer’ population in the USA, will help solidify the need for individual retirement accounts.

Social security and demographic shocks.

This paper examines the sharing of risks between generations in the framework of an overlapping generations model of social security with shocks to the productivity of labor and capital and demographic shocks. The study focused on stationary long run allocations. The concept of interim optimality was utilized, which amounts to standard Pareto optimality once the state of the world in which the agents are born is known. The set of interim optimal allocations was characterized and the equilibria associated with various institutional forms of social security from the point of view of the optimal criterion were also studied. In addition, the analogs of two traditional welfare theorems of microeconomic theory were obtained.

Reforming New Zealand's health care system

In common with many OECD countries, New Zealand has been engaged in a process of reforming the nation's health care system. In New Zealand's case the reforms have been particularly far reaching and effected within a remarkably short time frame. In 1991 the policy framework was made public, and the legislation to underpin the changes enacted in 1993. Shadow bureaucracies anticipating the reforms were set up as early as 1991, however, thus allowing for the changes to be effected in advance of legislation. Thus in the space of a few years, the social security model of health care, which had been in place for over half a century, was transformed into a system characterised by managed competition. This article begins by briefly describing the social security model of health care, and its inherent problems. I go on to analyze the reforms, focusing on the problems of the previous system that the reforms were intended to address. The major planks of the new system are identified, namely the separation of purchasing of health services from provision and creating a competitive market; the distinction between “personal” and “population” health services; establishment of a core of services to which all citizens are entitled; and the integration and capping of funding for health services, and increasing cost-sharing. Of these policies, only the separation of purchasing and provision of health care and the integration of funding for health services have to date been fully implemented, the remainder having been delayed, modified or abandoned. The health care system has arguably been only partially reformed, therefore.

Unemployment, employment and poverty

Although unemployment has been pointed out as one of the greatest risk factors of poverty and social exclusion, there are few comparative studies describing the effects of unemployment on the disposable income of households. This article focuses on unemployment as income poverty risk among working age households, with data based on the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). It investigates differences in relative poverty rates between those working age households affected and those not affected by unemployment since the early 1980s to the mid-1990s. The study consists of eight OECD countries representing four different social policy models: encompassing model (Nordic countries), the corporatistic earned-benefits-principle model (Germany), the means-tested, targeted social security model (Australia) and the so-called liberal basic security model (UK, USA and Canada). The results classified the countries into three groups. In the encompassing model and Canada, no differences were found in the poverty rates of the working age unemployed and employed households; there was also no indication that this situation was changing. Canada, however, had higher poverty rates among all working age households compared with Nordic countries. The situation in Germany can be characterized as stable polarization: unemployment there was a great poverty risk, but the difference between the unemployed and others was not growing. In all the other countries unemployment constituted a great and growing poverty risk, creating a threat of polarization among working age households. The poverty risk of working age households does not seem to be directly connected to the unemployment rate or the share of long-term unemployment. This article asserts the importance of income transfers in poverty prevention. It also suggests that the significance of women’s paid employment as a poverty-reducing factor deserves further empirical study.