Expanding the welfare system: a proposal for reform

Buchbeitrag

The proposal involves the establishment of 'welfare accounts' for every person in a country. There are to be four accounts: a retirement account (covering pensions), an unemployment account (covering unemployment support), a human capital account (covering education and training), and a health account (covering insurance against sickness and disability). Instead of the current welfare state systems - where welfare services are financed predominantly out of general taxes - people would make ongoing, mandatory contributions to each of these welfare accounts. The balances in these accounts would cover people's major welfare needs. The government is to set mandatory minimum contribution rates and maximum withdrawal rates from the accounts. The government is to have two budgetary systems: one in which non-welfare expenditures are financed through the existing array of taxes, and another system in which the public-sector expenditures on welfare services are financed through payments from people's welfare accounts. The government would be able to redistribute income across people's welfare accounts, but these redistributions would be constrained to be of the balanced-budget variety: total (economy-wide) taxes on each of the welfare accounts would be equal to total transfers into each of accounts. The public and private sectors would provide welfare services on an equal footing, setting prices for these services and competing with one another for the custom of the welfare account holders. We argue that moving from the current welfare state systems to a welfare account system may be expected to play a substantial role in reducing unemployment, encouraging labour force participation, promoting skills, reducing governments' budgetary pressures, cushioning people against economic risks, ensuring efficient provision of health and education services, providing social safety nets and redistributing incomes more efficiently.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: In: The welfare state in Europe: Challenges and reforms ; Year: 1998 ; Pages: 101-117 ; ISBN: 92-828-2118-8 ; Series: European economy: Reports and studies ; No. 1997,4 ; Luxembourg: Off. for Off. Publ. of the Europ. Communities

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Incomes Policy; Price Policy ; Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination ; Fiscal Policy ; National Government Expenditures and Related Policies: Infrastructures; Other Public Investment and Capital Stock ; National Budget; Budget Systems ; National Government Expenditures and Education ; Publicly Provided Private Goods ; Taxation and Subsidies: Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies ; Analysis of Health Care Markets ; Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies; includes inheritance and gift taxes ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs ; Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies: Public Policy ; Educational Finance; Financial Aid ; National Government Expenditures and Health ; National Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs ; Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government ; Education: Government Policy ; Public Goods
• Thema: Welfare state ; redistribution ; social insurance ; unemployment ; health ; education and training ; pensions ; sickness and disability , ; Sozialstaat ; Reform ; Einkommensumverteilung ; Theorie

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Orszag, Jonathan Michael ; Snower, Dennis J.
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Off. for Off. Publ. of the Europ. Communities ; ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft
• (wo): Luxembourg
• (wann): 1998

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/2093
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:42 MEZ