Welfare Reform Research Articles

Working life and human capital investment: Causal evidence from a pension reform

In this paper, we analyze if an increase in the working life leads to more human capital investment via on-the-job training. We obtain RDD-estimates from a sharp date-of-birth cut-off, generated by a pension reform that increased the Early Retirement Age (ERA) by three years for many women in Germany. In our preferred specification, we find that this reform causally increased on-the-job training by 4.4 percentage points – a relative increase of 28.8 percent. We explore heterogeneity and additional outcomes and show that this effect is driven by the behavior of women with high initial levels of education. Our results speak to human capital models as well as policies towards extending or shortening working life.

The Volunteer State: Latinx youth and the making of membership in Nashville, Tennessee.

Volunteering has long held a vaunted position in the United States, which has only increased in the wake of welfare reform and the retraction of the state from the provision of public goods. This article explores how immigrant-origin Latinx youth in Nashville, Tennessee, who are active community volunteers linked volunteering to moral personhood and their claims to national membership. This linkage is based on an internalized deficit perception of the Latinx immigrant person as an immoral national interloper and a stigmatization and racialization of economic need. However, youth also engaged in a reframing of the meanings of membership and volunteering rooted in their relational commitments to each other and their undocumented peers' blocked paths to citizenship. These socially reproductive and more transformative understandings of volunteering, and their links to self-as-citizen, reveal the contingent value of civic engagement for immigrant-origin Latinx youth. It also reveals their central roles in defining the parameters of membership in an era of increased nativist racism and decreased state social service provision in the United States.

CHALLENGES OF REFORMING THE ACCUMULATED PENSION SYSTEM IN GEORGIA

Implementation of well-timed and successful reforms is an important cornerstone of economic strength in Georgia. An important element of economic development and long-term economic growth is the reform of the compulsory cumulative pension system, which began in Georgia in 2019 and is being successfully implemented to this day. But, the problem is that the implementation of any long-term and large-scale reform faces certain challenges that require a deep analysis of the reform and the development of effective mechanisms for sustainable development. Due to the low investment culture of the society, the reform of the cumulative mandatory pension system has great social importance and is characterized by high public interest.

Delay the Pension Age or Adjust the Pension Benefit? Implications for Labor Supply and Individual Welfare in China

We develop and calibrate a life-cycle model of labor supply and consumption to quantify the implications of alternative pension reforms on labor supply, individual welfare, and government budget for Chinas basic old-age insurance program. We distinguish low-skilled and high-skilled individuals, who differ in their preferences, health and labor income dynamics, and medical expense processes. We use the calibrated model to evaluate three potential pension reforms: (i) increasing the pension eligibility age from 60 to 65, but keeping the current pension benefit formula unchanged; (ii) keeping the pension eligibility age at 60, but proportionally lowering pension benefits so that the pension program’s budget is the same as under Reform (i); and (iii) increasing the pension eligibility age to 65 and simultaneously increasing the pension benefits so that individuals of both skill types attain the same individual welfare levels as in the status quo. We find that relative to the baseline, both Reforms (i) and (ii) can substantially improve the budgets of the pension system, but at the cost of substantial individual welfare loss for both skill types. In contrast, we find that Reform (iii) can modestly improve the budget of the pension system while ensuring that both skill types are as well off as in the status quo. We find that Reforms (i) and (ii) slightly increase, but Reform (iii) slightly decreases, the overall labor supply.

Социально-психологические программы: «Активное долголетие» и «Антистарение XXI» – оценка эффективности по показателям биопсихологического возраста

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objective.</strong> Comparative analysis of the effectiveness of socio-psychological programs "Active Longevity" and "Anti-Aging XXI" in terms of their impact on biopsychological age. <br><strong>Background.</strong> Against the background of the growing aging of the population of developed countries, as well as the ongoing pension reform, there is an increasing demand for the development of social programs to increase longevity and improve the health of older age groups. <br><strong>Study design</strong>. For six months, a natural experiment was carried out, in which biopsychological age indicators were assessed in pensioners who participated in the "Active Longevity" and "Anti-Aging XXI" social programs and in the control group. Kruskal-Wallis statistics, Anova analysis of variance, Student's test for connected samples were used. <br><strong>Participants</strong>. Pensioners attached to the site of the Moscow polyclinic: 345 people (272 women (55-70 years old, M = 62,8; SD = 4,45), 73 men (60-70 years old, M = 65,9; SD = 2,99). <br><strong>Measurements</strong>. Tests for measuring biological age according to Voitenko, psychological age according to Abulkhanova-Berezina, expected retirement age. <br><strong>Results</strong>. In the absence of supportive training, there was a natural increase in the biological age of pensioners in the control group (by 2,6 years for women in six months, and 0,2 years for men). Participation in the "Active Longevity" program led to the absence of significant aging, and the selection of personal resources through the "Anti-Aging XXI" program led to a significant decrease in biological age by 0,7 years, and the biological aging index by 1,1 years. <br><strong>Conclusions.</strong> 1) The effectiveness of using social health programs is higher for women than for men. 2) The greatest effect is achieved with a combination of programs. "Antiaging XXI" is used to select resources, and classes take place in the centers of Moscow Longevity.</p>

Can Universal Basic Income work for disabled people? An examination of existing UK organisational and academic positions

Universal Basic Income (UBI) has been proposed as a means of addressing a range of issues relating to welfare systems, including by removing disincentives to economic, social and physical activity. However, UK disability organisations and figures have expressed concerns about whether UBI could lead to unintended consequences for people who currently receive support conditional on needs, means and/or behaviour. In this article, we outline prominent positions regarding disabled people in the literature on UBI and welfare reforms. We find that while there are reservations about the intentions and designs of UBI, there are means of securing positive outcomes and collaboration between its supporters and disability organisations. We also attempted a consultation but were unable to obtain a significant response. This was sometimes due to an expressed inability to respond meaningfully. This serves as a call for organisations to engage with UBI as a key issue of interest to disabled people.

The expected impact of the 2019 Brazilian pension reform on survivors’ pensions

AbstractThis study analyses the expected changes in survivors’ pensions resulting from the permanent rules of the 2019 pension reform in Brazil. Actuarial annuities are used for representative worker profiles. The dispersion in the replacement rate values decreases, except for the highest income level. The rates needed to finance survivors’ pensions decrease relatively more than do the rates for old‐age pensions. The internal rates of return significantly decrease. There is a heterogeneous change in the distributive aspects of the pension system. The reform shall affect the adequacy and intragenerational equity of old‐age and survivors’ pensions.

Policy Escalation: Richard Nixon, Welfare Reform, and the Development of a Comprehensive Approach to Health Insurance

AbstractI argue that health insurance emerged as an important aspect of Nixon’s domestic policy agenda as a result of “policy escalation.” By policy escalation, I mean a cascading line of reasoning that causes policy makers focused on one apparently discrete issue to formulate approaches for dealing with other interconnecting policy areas. Policy escalation serves as an internal agenda-setting mechanism: as policy makers contemplate policy changes, they may attempt to imagine the ways in which change will affect the rationale, fiscal position, and execution of programs in other policy areas. In the case of health insurance, the Nixon administration’s proposal for replacing Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a guaranteed minimum income forced policy makers to consider how the new program would interact with the existing Medicaid program. Consideration of this question ultimately led them to formulate an approach to overhauling the nation’s entire health insurance system.

Intermittent Citizens: Scotland's Travellers, Welfare, and the Shifting Boundary of State and Voluntary Action in the Early Twentieth Century

AbstractThis article explores the shifting relationship between Scottish Travellers, voluntary and mission action, and the state. Examining missionary and state attempts to settle, assimilate, and turn Scots Travellers into so-called good citizens in the first decades of the twentieth century—initially during the First World War and later in a designated camping scheme in Perthshire—reveals three things. First, many of the techniques used to manage Travellers’ behavior were not exceptional but rather can be seen as part of the wider armory deployed by welfare workers and reformers in this period. Often they used the particular sites of the mission hall, schoolroom, and camping ground to inculcate good citizenship. Second, the boundary between state and voluntary action was never fixed. And third, exploring how this boundary shifted over time can lead to a better understand of how Travellers were positioned as citizens at a time when both who was considered a citizen and what that might mean were profoundly changing. In this way, this article not only extends our understanding of Gypsy and Traveller history but also contributes to histories of the state, citizenship, and voluntary action.

Christian Democracy, Labor, and the Postwar Politics of Old-Age Pension Reform

AbstractChristian-democratic parties not only constituted the most successful political force in much of Western Europe during most of the twentieth century; their attitudes toward solidaristic welfare reform have arguably also been more diverse than have those of most other major political groupings during this period. Whereas existing studies have mostly attributed this variation to electoral or strategic considerations, this article emphasizes the importance of interest group involvement. It analyzes and compares postwar old-age pension reform in three important Christian-democratic-ruled societies, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, and shows how the very different attitudes of the main Christian-democratic parties toward solidaristic welfare reform in these countries related to the strength and unity of the Christian-democratic labor union movements there.

France: From Pension Reform to a Crisis of the Fifth Republic?

France: From Pension Reform to a Crisis of the Fifth Republic?

더 효율적인 빈곤정책의 역설

The changing socio-economic environment is increasing the instability of the labor market and the working poor, triggering welfare needs. In order to respond to welfare needs, the social security system seeks to improve efficiency and effectiveness and promotes redesign by adopting new digital technologies. In particular, the adoption of real-time information system that can more accurately and quickly respond to the increasing welfare needs is emerging as an ideal form of social assistance. Since 2012, the United Kingdom has adopted and operated integrated assistance called Universal Credit and Real-time Information System as part of welfare reform. However, unlike the expectation that Universal Credit and Real-time Information can reduce poverty by enabling efficient social assistance, side effects are occurring such as reducing salary stability and increasing uncertainty in future income. Therefore, this study examines the paradoxical situation in which Universal Credit and Real-time Information rather increases poverty.

Prospective directions of investment of pension assets as a factor of economic development of Ukraine

It is indicated that both economic and social reforms have been stalled in Ukraine for a long time. For example, 25 years have passed since the adoption of the Fundamentals of Legislation on Mandatory State Social Insurance, 19 years since the Law of Ukraine "On Mandatory State Pension Insurance" and the Law of Ukraine "On Non-State Pension Insurance" partially entered into force. However, the situation in the field of pension provision has not fundamentally changed. We are proud of the diversity of types of social security, but the size of many of them does not meet the requirements of the Law of Ukraine "On State Social Standards and Guarantees", the European Social Charter, the Convention on Minimum Norms of Social Security and other normative acts. One of the reasons is populism in the adoption of laws in the field of social security, lack of economic analysis of the state's ability to fulfill its positive obligations. The negative effects of this approach for the legal system have been repeatedly pointed out by both domestic and foreign scientists, for example Cass Sunstein in the well-known publication "Against positive rights".
 The idea of investing pension assets in land certificates did not materialize. However, investing in agricultural holdings is quite promising. The majority of Ukrainians are still against land reform and the open land market, as they fear that it will be used to steal land resources. If the population were sure that their savings would really be invested in the land business and they would receive their investment income from the results of economic activity in the agrarian sphere, then the emphasis of public opinion could be shifted in the direction of land reform.
 These are only separate and far from exhaustive areas of potential investment. But the full implementation of the above-mentioned ideas requires the real completion of social insurance reforms and, in particular, the pension reform. For its legislative completion, it is necessary to cancel individual clauses of the transitional provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On Mandatory State Pension Insurance", make changes to the "guarantees" section and immediately put them into effect together with a new well-thought-out economic strategy. At the same time, investment of pension assets in highly profitable sectors of the economy should be carried out in clear correlation with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the European Green Course.

Institutionalizing Experimental Places for Inclusive Social Innovation: From Utopias to Heterotopias

This essay embraces a notion of critical scholarship concerned with proposing normative and actionable alternatives that can create more inclusive societies and focuses on the role of institutionalizing experimental places for inclusive social innovation as a bottom-up strategic response to welfare state reforms. By mobilizing the notions of utopias and heterotopias in Foucault, the paper sheds light on the opportunity to move from policy utopias to democratic heterotopias, discussing the politics embedded in this cognitive shift and the democratic nature of social innovation changing social and governance relations by interacting with politico-administrative systems. Some obstacles to institutionalizing social innovation are highlighted, as well as some key governance mechanisms that can be activated either by public and/or social purpose organizations to try to overcome those obstacles. Finally, we discuss the importance of linking inclusive social innovation with democratic, rather than market logics.

An analysis of the impact of the increase in social security contributions approved in 2023

Rationale The latest pension reform, approved in 2023, included three measures to increase social security contributions, aiming to boost social security revenue. This article analyses the impact and calculates the ex ante effect of the changes approved. Takeaways •The growth in the maximum contribution base will have an uneven impact on workers and firms, among other reasons because the contributions made by middle-aged and more highly-educated workers and by employees of large firms are more likely to be subject to the cap on contributions. •The higher social security contributions approved in 2023 will also have an uneven impact across the wage distribution. In particular, effective contribution rates will increase more for high wage levels. •The recently adopted increase in social security contributions could boost social security revenue ex ante by 0.9% of GDP in 2050. But this revenue growth could be smaller if higher labour costs adversely affect competitiveness, wages or employment.

The 2023 France Pension Reform

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From Pension Reform to Regime Crisis: The Social Movement of 2023 in France

From Pension Reform to Regime Crisis: The Social Movement of 2023 in France

Framing pension reform in the news: Traditional versus social media

Abstract Social media are increasingly important in the news menu of media users. Differences in news production processes between traditional and social media may lead to differences in how political and social issues are depicted, and this may, eventually, have consequences for the information that reaches citizens about an issue. Against this background, this study compares content across the two media types to examine whether and how the framing of a sociopolitical issue differs between newspaper articles and posts on social media. The empirical analyses are based on a content analysis of newspaper articles (n = 414) and social media messages (n = 2,771) conducted in the context of the socially contested issue of raising the retirement age in the Netherlands. Findings suggest that different content production processes can still lead to similar outcomes as both media types emphasize problems with (instead of solutions to) the retirement age issue. Our findings also confirm differences across traditional and social media, although these differences are substantially relatively small. While traditional news media emphasize conflict-related frames more often than social media, social media present more frame diversity in solutions.

Income Guarantee Policy Design: Implications for Poverty, Income Distribution, and Tax Rates

A guaranteed income could greatly reduce poverty, yet the impact and feasibility depend on several key policy design choices. We empirically compare guarantee designs financed by income taxation and estimate potential labor supply responses to transfer benefits as well as financing or targeting mechanisms. The analysis features a fundamental tax reform converting personal deductions and credits into an income guarantee along with higher marginal tax rates. Additional results consider policies with a flat surtax, benefit phaseout, or welfare reform. We use microsimulation analysis based on the Current Population Survey, and we adjust for underreported income.

Mental health of single mothers in Australia

PurposeThis study aims to examine mental health amongst two cohorts of single mothers in Australia before and after major social welfare reforms, which limited single parents’ access to welfare payments to encourage labour market participation.Design/methodology/approachThe study analyses The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, which surveyed 9,145 women born in the 1970s in 2003, and 8,346 women born in the 1990s in 2019.FindingsCompared with other women of similar age, single mothers reported a higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidal thoughts and lower levels of mental health, although the magnitude varied between age groups and cohorts. This difference disappeared after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. Mental health of single mothers improved relative to that of other women between cohorts (1970s cohort surveyed in 2003, aged 25–30 versus 1990s cohort surveyed 2019, aged 24–30) and within the same 1970s cohort (surveyed 2003 and 2018), all else equal. Single mothers from the 1970s cohort aged 40–45 years and those in the 1990s cohort aged 24–30 years old were more qualified and held better jobs than the 1970s cohort at aged 25–30. Stress-related to money, ability to manage on available income and experiencing domestic violence were negatively associated with mental health across all cohorts and ages. Social support had a strong positive association with mental health.Originality/valueThe study suggests low welfare payment to encourage greater labour market participation is associated with financial distress linked to poor mental health.