Pub Date : 2021-12-23DOI: 10.4324/9781003263982-11
G. Williams
{"title":"Finance of the Social Services","authors":"G. Williams","doi":"10.4324/9781003263982-11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003263982-11","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39542,"journal":{"name":"Social Security Bulletin","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74372047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Economic inequality in America continues to grow, taking on ever greater economic and political importance. The reasons for increasing inequality are complex and widely debated, as are potential policies to address it. This paper focuses on a vital but unrecognized part of the story: how the social security retirement program has become a major systemic barrier to the acquisition of wealth by low- and moderate-income families, worsening inequality in general and the racial wealth gap in particular. Most families have no meaningful financial assets other than their social security wealth. Unlike other retirement savings, however, social security wealth is “dead capital,” completely inaccessible to families in need of resources to invest (in homeownership, most importantly) and to cope with unexpected financial shocks. After setting out the nature and magnitude of the problem, this article proposes a straightforward, practical remedy – the creation of Social Security Downpayment and Financial Emergency Loans – that would reduce inequality by helping families build financial security for themselves and wealth for future generations. These loans would counter the adverse effects of social security’s forced-but-inaccessible savings, opening the way to a much broader distribution of wealth.
{"title":"Social Security, Dead Capital and Economic Inequality","authors":"Marshall E. Tracht","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3893927","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3893927","url":null,"abstract":"Economic inequality in America continues to grow, taking on ever greater economic and political importance. The reasons for increasing inequality are complex and widely debated, as are potential policies to address it. This paper focuses on a vital but unrecognized part of the story: how the social security retirement program has become a major systemic barrier to the acquisition of wealth by low- and moderate-income families, worsening inequality in general and the racial wealth gap in particular. Most families have no meaningful financial assets other than their social security wealth. Unlike other retirement savings, however, social security wealth is “dead capital,” completely inaccessible to families in need of resources to invest (in homeownership, most importantly) and to cope with unexpected financial shocks. After setting out the nature and magnitude of the problem, this article proposes a straightforward, practical remedy – the creation of Social Security Downpayment and Financial Emergency Loans – that would reduce inequality by helping families build financial security for themselves and wealth for future generations. These loans would counter the adverse effects of social security’s forced-but-inaccessible savings, opening the way to a much broader distribution of wealth.","PeriodicalId":39542,"journal":{"name":"Social Security Bulletin","volume":"118 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89335740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper introduces China’s Urban-Rural Resident Medical Insurance (URRMI) Reform to examine whether health insurance integration has an impact on labor migration, using data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS). We find that the insurance integration drives the relatively high probability, for participants of the URRMI, to migrate from rural to urban workplaces. The positive effects are significant among certain cohorts: the young workers and the middle-aged, workers in Eastern China and Western China, and workers with efforts. In addition, the URRMI provides adequate medical services and decreases out-of-pocket medical expenditure for rural-urban migrant workers.
{"title":"Can Insurance Integration Influence Labor Migration? Evidence from China’s Urban-Rural Resident Medical Insurance Reform","authors":"Yuzheng Wang","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3856754","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3856754","url":null,"abstract":"This paper introduces China’s Urban-Rural Resident Medical Insurance (URRMI) Reform to examine whether health insurance integration has an impact on labor migration, using data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS). We find that the insurance integration drives the relatively high probability, for participants of the URRMI, to migrate from rural to urban workplaces. The positive effects are significant among certain cohorts: the young workers and the middle-aged, workers in Eastern China and Western China, and workers with efforts. In addition, the URRMI provides adequate medical services and decreases out-of-pocket medical expenditure for rural-urban migrant workers.","PeriodicalId":39542,"journal":{"name":"Social Security Bulletin","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84756986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The research study investigates the relevant issue of charity fraud. The main goal is to find out the root causes of why people believe in scammers. In Kazakhstan, a fifth of the funds collected are the earnings of pseudo-volunteers. Americans contributed nearly $450 billion to charity in 2019, according to the Giving USA Foundation’s annual report on US philanthropy. The information was collected by conducting a survey and interviews. According to the survey, around a quarter of respondents or people they know, witnessed charity fraud. This problem disturbs legitimate organizations and inhibits the settlement of global problems. The sum of money that was scammed may have been used as food or other aid to those in need.
{"title":"How to Avoid Fake Charity Organizations?","authors":"M. Askar","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3801595","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3801595","url":null,"abstract":"The research study investigates the relevant issue of charity fraud. The main goal is to find out the root causes of why people believe in scammers. In Kazakhstan, a fifth of the funds collected are the earnings of pseudo-volunteers. Americans contributed nearly $450 billion to charity in 2019, according to the Giving USA Foundation’s annual report on US philanthropy. The information was collected by conducting a survey and interviews. According to the survey, around a quarter of respondents or people they know, witnessed charity fraud. This problem disturbs legitimate organizations and inhibits the settlement of global problems. The sum of money that was scammed may have been used as food or other aid to those in need.","PeriodicalId":39542,"journal":{"name":"Social Security Bulletin","volume":"108 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89787125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This investigation identifies and validates a series of salient behavioral finance and psychological constructs that influence retirement income planning. We show how these scales are related to each other as well as retirement income concerns and investment behaviors. We also describe how four investment personas can be linked with the Advisor Usefulness and Retirement Income Self-Efficacy scales to successfully identify preferred financial implementation methods. This can assist individuals in more readily recognizing their relative strengths and weaknesses when implementing a retirement income strategy, and financial professionals can present advice in a manner that addresses a client’s concerns and preferred implementation.
{"title":"Retirement Income Beliefs and Financial Advice Seeking Behaviors","authors":"Alejandro Murguía, W. Pfau","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3788425","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3788425","url":null,"abstract":"This investigation identifies and validates a series of salient behavioral finance and psychological constructs that influence retirement income planning. We show how these scales are related to each other as well as retirement income concerns and investment behaviors. We also describe how four investment personas can be linked with the Advisor Usefulness and Retirement Income Self-Efficacy scales to successfully identify preferred financial implementation methods. This can assist individuals in more readily recognizing their relative strengths and weaknesses when implementing a retirement income strategy, and financial professionals can present advice in a manner that addresses a client’s concerns and preferred implementation.","PeriodicalId":39542,"journal":{"name":"Social Security Bulletin","volume":"154 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86786725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Beetsma, Oliwia Komada, Krzysztof Makarski, Joanna Tyrowicz
We analyze the political stability of capital funded social security. In particular, using a stylized theoretical framework we study the mechanisms behind governments capturing pension assets in order to lower current taxes. This is followed by an analysis of the analogous mechanisms in a fully-fledged overlapping generations model with intra-cohort heterogeneity. Funding is efficient in a Kaldor-Hicks sense. Individuals vote on capturing the accumulated pension assets and replacing the funded pension pillar with a pay-as-you-go scheme. We show that even if capturing assets reduces welfare in the long run, it always has sufficient political support from those alive at the moment of the vote.
{"title":"The Political (In)stability of Funded Pension Systems","authors":"R. Beetsma, Oliwia Komada, Krzysztof Makarski, Joanna Tyrowicz","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3570475","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3570475","url":null,"abstract":"We analyze the political stability of capital funded social security. In particular, using a stylized theoretical framework we study the mechanisms behind governments capturing pension assets in order to lower current taxes. This is followed by an analysis of the analogous mechanisms in a fully-fledged overlapping generations model with intra-cohort heterogeneity. Funding is efficient in a Kaldor-Hicks sense. Individuals vote on capturing the accumulated pension assets and replacing the funded pension pillar with a pay-as-you-go scheme. We show that even if capturing assets reduces welfare in the long run, it always has sufficient political support from those alive at the moment of the vote.","PeriodicalId":39542,"journal":{"name":"Social Security Bulletin","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76795406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Examines, following the Supreme Court ruling in R. (on the application of DA) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the use of the “manifestly without reasonable foundation” test in domestic judicial review challenges. The application of this benchmark in a series of human rights based challenges to social welfare reforms – such as the high profile “bedroom tax” and “benefit cap” policies – has been pivotal to their outcome. This paper argues that the application of the test is problematic as it is a formulation derived from the margin of appreciation doctrine and does not transpose to domestic application. In the alternative – even if it is the correct test to apply in some circumstances – it is to be applied far more flexibly than currently and that a “very weighty reasons” benchmark applies for some classes of discrimination.
{"title":"Problems With the ‘Manifestly Without Reasonable Foundation’ Test","authors":"Jed Meers","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3677184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3677184","url":null,"abstract":"Examines, following the Supreme Court ruling in R. (on the application of DA) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the use of the “manifestly without reasonable foundation” test in domestic judicial review challenges. The application of this benchmark in a series of human rights based challenges to social welfare reforms – such as the high profile “bedroom tax” and “benefit cap” policies – has been pivotal to their outcome. This paper argues that the application of the test is problematic as it is a formulation derived from the margin of appreciation doctrine and does not transpose to domestic application. In the alternative – even if it is the correct test to apply in some circumstances – it is to be applied far more flexibly than currently and that a “very weighty reasons” benchmark applies for some classes of discrimination.","PeriodicalId":39542,"journal":{"name":"Social Security Bulletin","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86549399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Medicaid provides a critical source of insurance for long-term care, and individuals may strategically offload assets (typically to children) to meet the means-tested eligibility requirement. In this paper, we quantify the extent of such behavior using variation in the penalty for improper parent-to-child transfers induced by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. We estimate difference-in-differences models based on the hypothesis that only individuals with high levels of nursing home risk (high risk) will alter transfers because of the Act. We find that over a two-year horizon, high risk individuals reduced transfers to children on the extensive margin by 11 percent and that the average total amount of transfers decreased by $4,860. The results hold only for coupled respondents. We also conduct a triple-differences analysis to examine heterogeneity with financial literacy and find that even those with a low level of financial literacy responded to the penalty.
医疗补助为长期护理提供了一个重要的保险来源，个人可能会战略性地出售资产(通常是给孩子)，以满足经济状况调查的资格要求。在本文中，我们量化了这种行为的程度，使用了2005年《赤字削减法案》(Deficit Reduction Act of 2005)引发的对不当亲子转移的惩罚变化。我们根据假设估计差异中的差异模型，即只有具有高水平养老院风险(高风险)的个人会因为该法案而改变转移。我们发现，在两年的时间里，高风险个体将对儿童的转移支付减少了11%，平均转移支付总额减少了4860美元。该结果仅适用于已婚受访者。我们还进行了三重差异分析，以检验金融知识的异质性，发现即使是那些金融知识水平较低的人也会对惩罚做出反应。
{"title":"Medicaid and Long-Term Care: The Effects of Penalizing Strategic Asset Transfers","authors":"Junhao Liu, Anit Mukherjee","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3165733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3165733","url":null,"abstract":"Medicaid provides a critical source of insurance for long-term care, and individuals may strategically offload assets (typically to children) to meet the means-tested eligibility requirement. In this paper, we quantify the extent of such behavior using variation in the penalty for improper parent-to-child transfers induced by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. We estimate difference-in-differences models based on the hypothesis that only individuals with high levels of nursing home risk (high risk) will alter transfers because of the Act. We find that over a two-year horizon, high risk individuals reduced transfers to children on the extensive margin by 11 percent and that the average total amount of transfers decreased by $4,860. The results hold only for coupled respondents. We also conduct a triple-differences analysis to examine heterogeneity with financial literacy and find that even those with a low level of financial literacy responded to the penalty.","PeriodicalId":39542,"journal":{"name":"Social Security Bulletin","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79637794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Children consume a substantial portion of a household’s income while living at home, but are usually financially independent by the time the parents reach retirement age. Relatively little attention has been paid to how children affect parents’ need to save for retirement. In this paper I use expenditure data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to construct life cycle expenditure patterns from households with children and childless households, comparing the two to gain insights on how children affect household consumption and how these differences may affect retirement planning strategies for parents versus childless adults. For households who had children, expenditures from ages 65 through 69 are 3 percent lower than from ages 45 to 49, while for childless households expenditures rise 33 percent from ages 45 to 49 through ages 65-69. Similarly, parental household expenditures at age 65-69 are equal to about 80 percent of earnings from ages 45-49, versus 94 percent for nonparental households. These life cycle expenditure patterns appear sufficiently distinct that both households planning for retirement and analysts evaluating the adequacy of household retirement saving should consider the presence of children in the household as a factor affecting the wealth necessary for retirees to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living in retirement.
{"title":"How Do Children Affect the Need to Save for Retirement?","authors":"Andrew G. Biggs","doi":"10.2139/ssrn.3518680","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3518680","url":null,"abstract":"Children consume a substantial portion of a household’s income while living at home, but are usually financially independent by the time the parents reach retirement age. Relatively little attention has been paid to how children affect parents’ need to save for retirement. In this paper I use expenditure data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to construct life cycle expenditure patterns from households with children and childless households, comparing the two to gain insights on how children affect household consumption and how these differences may affect retirement planning strategies for parents versus childless adults. For households who had children, expenditures from ages 65 through 69 are 3 percent lower than from ages 45 to 49, while for childless households expenditures rise 33 percent from ages 45 to 49 through ages 65-69. Similarly, parental household expenditures at age 65-69 are equal to about 80 percent of earnings from ages 45-49, versus 94 percent for nonparental households. These life cycle expenditure patterns appear sufficiently distinct that both households planning for retirement and analysts evaluating the adequacy of household retirement saving should consider the presence of children in the household as a factor affecting the wealth necessary for retirees to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living in retirement.","PeriodicalId":39542,"journal":{"name":"Social Security Bulletin","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90360850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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