Institutional and Financial Incentives for Social Insurance

1 The Effects of Welfare Benefits on the Duration of Welfare Spells.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 Data.- 1.3 Nonparametric Analysis.- 1.4 Parametric Analysis of Welfare Spell Durations.- 1.5 Conclusion.- 2 The Design of Active Labour Market Policies.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Policy Effectiveness and the Underlying Causes of Unemployment Persistence.- 2.3 Incentives: Do they matter?.- 2.4 Conclusion.- 3 Labor Market Policies and Equilibrium Employment.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Job Matching, Labor Market Policies and Equilibrium Employment.- 3.3 A Numerical Simulation for Belgium.- 3.4 Conclusion.- 4 Unemployment Compensation Preferences.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Preferences Concerning Unemployment Insurance: a Simple Model.- 4.3 Design of the Survey.- 4.4 Estimation Results: Preferences Concerning the Unemployment Insurance System.- 4.5 Conclusion.- 5 Competition and Budget Devolution in Health Care.- 5.1 The 1990 Reforms.- 5.2 Evaluating the 1990 Reforms.- 5.3 The New Labour Government Tries Again.- 6 Pension Provision in the United States.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Public Sources of Income.- 6.3 Private Pension Plans.- 6.4 Sustainability of the Public System.- 6.5 Activity Rates.- 6.6 Income Distribution.- 6.7 Conclusions.- 7 The Willingness to Pay for Pensions.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Model.- 7.3 The Relationship Between Instantaneous Utilities and Lifetime Utilities.- 7.4 Benchmarks.- 7.5 Funded System with Income Insurance.- 7.6 Pay-as-you-go Pension Systems.- 7.7 Discussion.- 8 Social Security and Risk Sharing.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 The Model.- 8.3 Interim Optimality.- 8.4 Equilibrium and Intergenerational Transfers.- 8.5 Proofs.- 9 Transition from Unfunded to Funded Social Security.- 9.1 A Simple Model.- 9.2 Would the Young Ever Want to Bribe the Old?.- 9.3 How Should Pension Funds Be Managed?.- 9.4 Conclusion.- 10 Voting over Social Security with Uncertain Lifetimes.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 The Economy.- 10.3 Flat-Rate Benefits.- 10.4 Contribution-Related Benefits.- 10.5 Means-Tested Benefits.- 10.6 Summary and Concluding Remarks.- Appendix: Proof of Proposition 4.- 11 The Political Economy.- 11.1 Introduction.- 11.2 The Model.- 11.3 Majority Voting in the Steady State.- 11.4 Demographic Shock.- 11.5 Choosing the Parameters ? and p.- 11.6 Conclusion.