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E M P L O Y E E B E N E F I T S , C O M P E N S A T I O N
& P E N S I O N L A W
Vol. 3, No. 22: November 21, 2002
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Publisher: LSN Employment, Labor, Compensation & Pension Journals
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NEW and FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
"The Borders of Solidarity: How Countries Determine the
Public/Private Mix in Spending and the Impact on Health Care"
Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine, Vol. 12, No. 2,
Summer 2002
COLLEEN FLOOD
University of Toronto
Faculty of Law
MARK STABILE
University of Toronto
Department of Economics
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
CAROLYN J. HUGHES TUOHY
University of Toronto
Department of Political Science
WORKING PAPERS
"Gender Differences in Early Retirement Behaviour"
SVENN AAGE DAHL
Foundation for Research in Economics and Business
Admin., Norway (SNF)
OIVIND ANTI NILSEN
University of Bergen
Department of Economics
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
KJELL VAAGE
University of Bergen
Department of Economics
"Social Security and Gender: Brazilian and World Practices"
KAIZO I. BELTRAO
National School of Statistics from the Brazilian
Institute of Geography and Statistics - ENCE/IBGE
MARIA S. NOVELLINO
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica
(IBGE)
FRANCISCO EDUARDO BARRETO DE OLIVEIRA
Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e
Social (BNDES)
Department of Economico
ANDRE C. MEDICI
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) -
Sustainable Development Department, Social
Development Division
"From Severance Pay to Self-Insurance: Effects of Severance
Payments Savings Accounts in Colombia"
ADRIANA DEBORA KUGLER
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Department of Economics and Business
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
"Effects of Old-Age Insurance on Female Retirement: Evidence from
Cross-Country Time-Series Data"
RICHARD JOHNSON
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Economic Research Department
"Parallel Private Health Insurance in Australia: A Cautionary
Tale and Lessons for Canada"
JEREMIAH HURLEY
McMaster University
Department of Economics
RHEMA VAITHIANATHAN
Australian National University
Department of Economics
THOMAS F. CROSSLEY
McMaster University
Department of Economics
DEBORAH COBB-CLARK
Australian National University Economics Program
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
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N E W and F O R T H C O M I N G Articles
_________________________________________________________________
"The Borders of Solidarity: How Countries Determine the
Public/Private Mix in Spending and the Impact on Health Care"
Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine, Vol. 12, No. 2,
Summer 2002
BY: COLLEEN FLOOD
University of Toronto
Faculty of Law
MARK STABILE
University of Toronto
Department of Economics
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
CAROLYN J. HUGHES TUOHY
University of Toronto
Department of Political Science
Paper ID: U Toronto Law and Economics Research Paper No. 02-02
Contact: COLLEEN FLOOD
Email: Mailto:colleen.flood@utoronto.ca
Postal: University of Toronto
Faculty of Law
78 Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C5 CANADA
Co-Auth: MARK STABILE
Email: Mailto:mark.stabile@utoronto.ca
Postal: University of Toronto
Department of Economics
150 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G7 CANADA
Co-Auth: CAROLYN J. HUGHES TUOHY
Email: Mailto:c.tuohy@utoronto.ca
Postal: University of Toronto
Department of Political Science
Sidney Smith Hall
100 St George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3 CANADA
ABSTRACT:
In this paper we outline the mix of public/private funding in
six OECD countries: Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New
Zealand, the UK, and the US. We look at the processes by which
this mix is determined and the impact of the mix on health
outcomes, utilization, spending, and waiting times.
In the absence of rationing by price or ability to pay
rationing can occur implicitly through limitations on the
capacity of the system (the number of beds, providers,
technology etc) or explicitly (through limitations on the kinds
of services publicly funded). In all of the countries there has
historically been little attempt to develop a principled basis
for determining the boundaries of the publicly funded system,
and most of the systems under study have relied on negotiations
between government and physician bargaining associations to
determine what services will be publicly funded. We conclude
that countries like Canada should establish principled processes
for determining what is to be publicly funded.
Turning to the evidence on the impact of the public/private
mix on health outcomes, utilization, spending, and waiting
times, the evidence generally points away from increased private
financing as a means to achieve effective health care reform.
There appears to be no relationship between increased private
spending and improved health outcomes. In fact, we found a
positive correlation between private health care spending as a
percent of total health spending and potential years of life
lost. This result has to be read with some caution as it is only
a simple correlation at a point in time. However, one could
hypothesize that this result reflects in part that private
spending tends to be skewed towards the more well off
individuals where the returns to spending on health are smaller
and away from potentially more needy populations where the
returns are larger. Country specific evidence on the effects of
private, out of pocket cost sharing on access to care and health
outcomes shows that co-payments do indeed create barriers to
access and that these barriers can result in worse health
outcomes for the poor. The evidence on the relationship between
private financing and health care spending suggests that
countries with higher levels of private financing such as the US
have higher costs and higher cost growth than countries with
predominantly public payers such as Canada. Furthermore,
examining the impact of private financing on public health
funding suggests that increases in private financing are
associated with declines, over time, in public funds allocated
to health care. Finally, the available evidence does not suggest
that private financing is successful in improving waiting times
for care. In fact, even in those countries, such as the UK, with
a second private health care tier, public initiatives to improve
waiting times in the primary tier have proven more successful.
______________________________
W O R K I N G P A P E R Abstracts
_________________________________________________________________
"Gender Differences in Early Retirement Behaviour"
BY: SVENN AAGE DAHL
Foundation for Research in Economics and Business
Admin., Norway (SNF)
OIVIND ANTI NILSEN
University of Bergen
Department of Economics
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
KJELL VAAGE
University of Bergen
Department of Economics
Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=320104
Other Electronic Document Delivery:
ftp://ftp.iza.org/dps/dp522.pdf
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Paper ID: IZA Discussion Paper No. 522
Date: June 2002
Contact: OIVIND ANTI NILSEN
Email: Mailto:oivind.nilsen@econ.uib.no
Postal: University of Bergen
Department of Economics
Fosswinckelsgt. 6
N-5007 Bergen, NORWAY
Phone: +47-55589200
Fax: +47-55589210
Co-Auth: SVENN AAGE DAHL
Email: Mailto:SvennAage.Dahl@snf.no
Postal: Foundation for Research in Economics and Business Admin.,
Norway (SNF)
Breiviksveien 40
N-5045 Bergen, NORWAY
Co-Auth: KJELL VAAGE
Email: Mailto:kjell.vaage@econ.uib.no
Postal: University of Bergen
Department of Economics
Fosswinckelsgt. 6
N-5007 Bergen, NORWAY
Paper Requests:
Contact: Mark Fallak, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA),
P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Phone:+49-228-3894-0 ext.
223. Fax:+ 49-228-3894-510. Mailto:Fallak@iza.org
ABSTRACT:
In this paper we analyse early retirement for men and women
focusing on family characteristics such as marital status,
spouse income and wealth, and spouses' labour market status. The
female participation rate is high in Norway, implying that the
country is particularly suitable for the study of gender
differences in the early retirement behaviour. At our disposal
we have administrative data that include information on
individuals aged between 55 and 61 years in 1989. The
individuals are followed until the end of 1995, with the aim of
determining the predictors of different early retirement states.
The results of a competing risk model indicate that women are
less likely to take early retirement compared to men and that
these differences are due to both different characteristics and
different behaviour.
Keywords: Early Retirement, Gender Differences, Labour Force
Participation
JEL Classification: J26, C23, C25
______________________________
"Social Security and Gender: Brazilian and World Practices"
BY: KAIZO I. BELTRAO
National School of Statistics from the Brazilian
Institute of Geography and Statistics - ENCE/IBGE
MARIA S. NOVELLINO
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica
(IBGE)
FRANCISCO EDUARDO BARRETO DE OLIVEIRA
Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e
Social (BNDES)
Department of Economico
ANDRE C. MEDICI
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) -
Sustainable Development Department, Social
Development Division
Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=314927
Other Electronic Document Delivery:
http://www.ipea.gov.br/pub/td/2002/td_0867.pdf
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Paper ID: IPEA Working Paper No. 867
Date: March 2002
Contact: KAIZO I. BELTRAO
Email: Mailto:kaizo@ibge.gov.br
Postal: National School of Statistics from the Brazilian Institute
of Geography and Statistics - ENCE/IBGE
Rua Andre Cavalcanti, 106
Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20081-1 BRAZIL
Phone: +55 21 224 7677
Fax: +55 21 262 6330
Co-Auth: MARIA S. NOVELLINO
Email: Mailto:novellino@ibge.gov.br
Postal: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE)
Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
Co-Auth: FRANCISCO EDUARDO BARRETO DE OLIVEIRA
Email: not available
Postal: Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social
(BNDES)
Department of Economico
Area de Planejamento
Rio de Janeiro, Sala 1428 BRAZIL
Co-Auth: ANDRE C. MEDICI
Email: Mailto:andrem@iadb.org
Postal: Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) - Sustainable
Development Department, Social Development
Division
1300 New York Ave., NW
Mail Stop E-421
Washington, DC 20057 UNITED STATES
Note: The downloadable document is written in Portuguese.
ABSTRACT:
Social security is concerned on easing the impact of
contingencies that lead to capacity loss for generating income.
There are, however, conceptual differences between genders with
respect to social security contributions and benefits. This text
is concerned with equality and specificity in the treatment
given to the different genders. Equality and specificity between
sexes can be attributed to, basically, two different reasons:
Biological and socio-cultural factors. Biological differences
lead to issues around reproductive functions (birth and
nursing). Socio-cultural differences lead to constructs defined
in the specific society (cultural and religious values, family
ties and hierarchy, labor market sexual bias, patterns of
schooling, etc.). They show up in the labor market, in family
structure and in levels of schooling. This text places social
security in a historical perspective of the in[equality] between
genders at a international as well as a national level.
International unified concerns with equality and specificity
between genders in the realm of social security are relatively
recent. Only in 1919 the ILO - International Labour Organization
formulated its first convention dealing with issues related to
maternity protection. ILO conventions dealing with women
protection with respect to social security benefits as well as
the main issues defended by women organizations in world
conferences sponsored by United Nations are presented and
analyzed in this paper. For the Brazilian context, it is
presented a list of the main differences between men and women
with respect to social security benefits. Brazilian social
security benefits are characterized by a major male profile.
That is seen as a consequence of their predominance in the
formal labor market in terms of quantity and of quality of
position and relative earnings. Consequently, women benefit
values are lower than men's. This situation is not due to social
security rules and regulations unfairness of treatment but only
reflects the actual situation in the labor market. In order to
best understand the Brazilian situation and to place in the
international context, legislation in 60 countries are compared.
The comparison includes information disaggregated by gender on:
minimum age for retirement, eligibility conditions for
survivor's pension, maternity benefits and family
responsibilities.
Keywords: mulher, gender, seguridade social, legislation
JEL Classification: D63, I00, I38, J78
______________________________
"From Severance Pay to Self-Insurance: Effects of Severance
Payments Savings Accounts in Colombia"
BY: ADRIANA DEBORA KUGLER
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Department of Economics and Business
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=300651
Other Electronic Document Delivery:
ftp://ftp.iza.org/dps/dp434.pdf
SSRN only offers technical support for papers
downloaded from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection
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them into your browser eliminating all spaces.
Paper ID: IZA Discussion Paper No. 434
Date: February 2002
Contact: ADRIANA DEBORA KUGLER
Email: Mailto:ADRIANA.KUGLER@ECON.UPF.ES
Postal: Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Department of Economics and Business
Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27
08005 Barcelona, SPAIN
Phone: +34 93 542 2669
Fax: +34 93 542 1746
Paper Requests:
Contact: Mark Fallak, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA),
P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Phone:+49-228-3894-0 ext.
223. Fax:+ 49-228-3894-510. Mailto:Fallak@iza.org
ABSTRACT:
In 1990 Colombia replaced its traditional system of severance
payments with a new system of severance payments savings
accounts (SPSAs). Although severance payments often are
justified on the grounds that they provide insurance against
earnings loss, they also increase costs for employers and
distort employment decisions. The impact of severance payments
depends largely on how much of the costs to employers can be
shifted to workers. The theoretical analysis in this paper shows
that, in contrast to a traditional system of severance payments,
the system of SPSAs facilitates the shifting of severance
payments costs to workers in the form of lower wages. Empirical
results using the Colombian National Household Surveys indicate
that the introduction of SPSAs shifted around 80% of the total
severance payments contributions to wages and had a positive
effect on weekly hours. Results using the 1997 Colombian Living
Standards Measurement Survey suggest that, although SPSAs in
part replaced employer insurance with self-insurance, SPSAs
continue to play a consumption smoothing role for the
non-employed.
JEL Classification: E2, H2, J3, J6
______________________________
"Effects of Old-Age Insurance on Female Retirement: Evidence from
Cross-Country Time-Series Data"
BY: RICHARD JOHNSON
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Economic Research Department
Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=294072
Other Electronic Document Delivery:
http://www.kc.frb.org/publicat/rewskpap/rwpmain.html
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Paper ID: FRB Kansas City Research Working Paper No. 01-08
Date: October 2001
Contact: RICHARD JOHNSON
Email: Mailto:RICHARD.JOHNSON@KC.FRB.ORG
Postal: Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Economic Research Department
925 Grand Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64198 UNITED STATES
Phone: 816-881-2349
Fax: 816-881-2199
Paper Requests:
Contact The Public Affairs Department, Federal Reserve Bank of
Kansas City, 925 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64198-0001.
Phone:(816) 881-2683.
ABSTRACT:
I examine the effect of Old-Age Insurance (OAI) on older women's
labor-force participation in fourteen countries since around
1930. Older women's participation has risen in the US, but has
fallen over time in some European countries. The discontinuity
of incentives at the state pension age helps separate OAI's
effects from those of social mores and husbands' retirements.
Clear effects of OAI on female retirement emerge slowly in time
series. I find that, were Germany to adopt the US Social
Security system, the participation rate of German women aged
60-4 would increase by 7 percentage points.
Keywords: Social Security, Public Pensions, Economics of the
Elderly, Labor Force and Employment, Retirement Policies
JEL Classification: H55, J14, J21, J26
______________________________
"Parallel Private Health Insurance in Australia: A Cautionary
Tale and Lessons for Canada"
BY: JEREMIAH HURLEY
McMaster University
Department of Economics
RHEMA VAITHIANATHAN
Australian National University
Department of Economics
THOMAS F. CROSSLEY
McMaster University
Department of Economics
DEBORAH COBB-CLARK
Australian National University Economics Program
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=320084
Other Electronic Document Delivery:
ftp://ftp.iza.org/dps/dp515.pdf
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Paper ID: IZA Discussion Paper No. 515
Date: June 2002
Contact: JEREMIAH HURLEY
Email: Mailto:hurley@mcmaster.ca
Postal: McMaster University
Department of Economics
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M4 CANADA
Co-Auth: RHEMA VAITHIANATHAN
Email: Mailto:rhema.vaithianathan@anu.edu.au
Postal: Australian National University
Department of Economics
Canberra ACT 0200, AUSTRALIA
Co-Auth: THOMAS F. CROSSLEY
Email: Mailto:crossle@mcmaster.ca
Postal: McMaster University
Department of Economics
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M4 CANADA
Co-Auth: DEBORAH COBB-CLARK
Email: Mailto:DEBORAH.COBB-CLARK@ANU.EDU.AU
Postal: Australian National University Economics Program
Research School of Social Sciences
Canberra ACT 0200, AUSTRALIA
Paper Requests:
Contact: Mark Fallak, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA),
P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Phone:+49-228-3894-0 ext.
223. Fax:+ 49-228-3894-510. Mailto:Fallak@iza.org
ABSTRACT:
Canada's restrictions on the role of private health insurance
for publicly insured physician and hospital services are unique
among countries with universal, publicly funded health care
systems. Pressure is mounting in Canada, however, to loosen
these restrictions and create a parallel system of private
finance. Advocates argue that creation of a parallel system of
private finance will ensure the sustainability of the public
system (by reducing public cost pressures), improve access to
the public system (e.g., by reducing wait times), and improve
quality in the public system (through competition). Opponents of
parallel private finance argue that it will create "two-tiered"
medicine, increase costs, compromise equity and reduce quality
and access to publicly financed health care as those with the
financial means (and often the strongest voice) exit to private
insurance. Australia provides a particularly promising case
study for Canada regarding the dynamics of parallel systems of
public and private finance. This paper examines Australia's
experience with parallel finance for inpatient hospital services
to provide insight regarding: (a) the effectiveness of a
parallel system of private finance in reducing costs and wait
times in the public system; (b) risk selection between the
parallel public and private insurance sectors; (c) the financial
redistribution associated with the introduction and maintenance
of a parallel system of finance; and (d) the dynamics of the
broader political economy associated with parallel systems of
finance. Australia's experience provides a number of lessons for
Canada, including: (1) the potential for cost savings through
introduction or expansion of a parallel private sector is very
limited; (2) the introduction or expansion of a parallel private
finance is unlikely to reduce wait times in the publicly
financed system; (3) there is no simple way to regulate private
insurers to pursue public objectives; (4) it is impossible to
create an independent, isolated parallel system of private
finance -- interactions between the public and private insurance
sectors are complex and unavoidable; (5) quality plays a key
role in driving the dynamics between the public and privately
financed sectors; and (6) it is essential to articulate clear
policy objectives for health care financing and to design public
and private roles consistent with these objectives. Our overall
conclusion is that the Australian experience provides a
cautionary tale regarding the risks, costs and benefits of a
parallel private system of health care finance.