This study underscores the essence of national social protection policies, in promoting investments that further the objectives of poverty reduction, as well as social inclusion. It provides answers and directions to the following questions: What are the contrasting impacts of foreign direct...

We consider three transfer models with a representative individual who discounts the utility of the merit good with respect to the standard one's. In each model, a paternalistic government taxes the consumer and transfers him additional merit goods in return. The private purchase of the merit...

This paper deals with the coverage of long-term care (LTC) in Germany since the post-war period. Until the 1990s, long-term care was mainly a task of the family with means-tested, tax-financed care assistance as a last resort. In 1994, after two decades of political debate, the German parliament...

Estonia is widely regarded as a paramount example for a successful transformation of a socialist economic system to a functioning market economy. Against the backdrop of this positive image which contrasts strongly with the crisis scenarios in Southern Europe the remaining problems of Estonia...

The policy brief presents a review of potential effects of parametric pension reform in Belarus starting in 2017 for the population aged 50 and more in terms of unemployment, alcohol consumption, and poverty. It concludes that, despite the fact that raising the retirement age is overdue in...

The paper discusses the issue of labor force mobility in a broad sense, and analyses how changes in social security policy and the structure of the social safety net (SSN) affects different aspects of labor force mobility. The text is structured as follows: Introduction, then follows Chapter 2,...

The paper discusses possible directions and magnitudes of the relationship between the social security driven tax wedge, employment and shadow employment in Russia and Ukraine. The first section presents a summary of the economic and institutional background for development of the current size...

This paper reviews the current state of and challenges facing social protection in the Philippines. It describes the social protection institutions and the schemes that have been developed throughout the years. It also provides an assessment focusing on coverage, administration, and management....

The current global economic crisis has led to greater prominence for the issue of strengthening social protection systems in Asia. This paper analyzes the key factors determining and the possible avenues for strengthening social protection systems in Asia. The choice of an appropriate...

Fast zwanzig Jahre nach der deutschen Wiedervereinigung gibt es immer noch erhebliche regionale Einkommensunterschiede zwischen West- und Ostdeutschland. Der Artikel soll zeigen, wie die Transferzahlungen des Staates diese Einkommensdisparitäten ausgleichen. In einem ersten Schritt untersuchen...