A popular view about social security, dating back to its early days of inception, is that it is a means for young, unemployed workers to "purchase" jobs from older, employed workers. The question we ask is: Can social security, by encouraging retirement and hence creating job vacancies for the...

Pay-as-you-go pension programs can help to share risk amongst generations.While a wage-indexed pension program is best suited to share labor income risk,I show that the combination of stochastic labor income and stochastic populationgrowth may reduce the possibilities for intergenerational risk...

This report is the first policy study of the China Economic Research and AdvisoryProgramme, in which eminent economists from China and abroad have participated. Thereport focuses on the problems faced by China in the reform of its social security system.On the basis of economic principles and...

John Hills and Orsolya Lelkes have analysed results from the National Centrefor Social Research’s 1998 British Social Attitudes survey on public attitudes toredistribution and social security benefits and at how these relate to currentgovernment policies.There is a persistent public appetite...

This report summarises presentations and discussion at a seminar, organised by LSE Housingand CASE, which took place at the London School of Economics on 7th July 1998. The eventwas chaired by Professor Howard Glennerster (LSE and Chairman of STICERD), and thespeakers were Professor William...

At the end of 2008, the Government set in motion a Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England chaired by Sir Michael Marmot. It is to report in December 2009. As part of its work, it set up various Task Groups to collect evidence and suggest policy options. The Task Group on Social...

This paper reviews changes in pension policies in EU countries between 1995 and2005 and describes how they might affect risk of poverty for future pensionerpopulations. The pension landscape in Europe has changed considerably in the pastdecade and the paper highlights commonalities as well as...

The construction industry is important for Chinese rural to urban migrants. Over 90%of urban construction workers are rural migrants, and over a third of all rural migrantswork in construction. The construction industry is not only particularly important, butis also different from other...

This article outlines the recommendations of the UK Pensions Commission, andthe data and analysis on which they were based, including projections ofdemographic change, trends in private pension saving, and evolution of the statepension system. The Commission concluded that without reform,...

This paper examines the decline of National Insurance in Britain, as witnessedby its declining share of all social security spending and the steady dilution ofthe “contributory principle” on which it was originally based. It argues that thisdecline is not an accident: under governments of...