Two Legs are Better than Three: New Zealand as a Model for Old Age Pensions

John, Susan St; Willmore, Larry

doi:10.1016/s0305-750x(01)00041-9

Cited by 29 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…In the 1930s, New Zealand emerged as a leading welfare state and it is not clear if it has entirely reverted to a residual welfare state afterward (Castles, 2010: 633–34). More importantly, the country’s score for universalism reflects a particularly low level of private social expenditures, which is probably tied to a universal, flat-rate and generous public pension system that brings the country closer to Denmark than to other English-speaking nations (Scruggs and Allan, 2006: 62; St John and Willmore, 2001). The other cases are largely located where one would expect.…”

Section: Concepts Measurement and Evidence: What Is Targeting Withinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeting within universalism

Jacques

Noël

2020

Journal of European Social Policy

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The idea of targeting within universalism has been evoked frequently, usually as a best of both worlds’ strategy. The approach remains difficult to identify, however, because targeting is usually measured as the opposite of universalism. This article proposes to consider targeting and universalism as two distinct dimensions of the welfare state, the opposite of universalism being more usefully understood as residualism, and not as pro-poor targeting. Four welfare state possibilities then emerge, combining a position on the universalism/residualism axis and one on the pro-poor/pro-rich axis: universalism (France, for instance), targeting within universalism (Denmark), targeting within residualism (the United States) and pro-rich residualism (Japan). We show that targeting within universalism entails pro-poor targeting without means testing, a combination that can be achieved with limits on the earnings-relatedness of the pension system and generous transfers to the working age population. Thus understood, targeting within universalism proves to be an effective redistributive strategy, better to redistribute than mere targeting, and less costly than universalism pure and simple.

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Section: Concepts Measurement and Evidence: What Is Targeting Withinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeting within universalism

Jacques

Noël

2020

Journal of European Social Policy

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“…For European countries, we cross check our data set with the NBER series on social security programs and retirement around the world, including Fraikin, Jousten, and Lefebvre (2018) for Belgium, Bingley, Gupta, Jorgensen, and Pedersen (2014) for Denmark, Lassila and Valkonen (2002) for Finland, Blanchet, Bozio, Rabate, and Roger (2019) for France, Franco (2002) and Brugiavini and Peracchi (2014) for Italy, Vegas Sánchez, Argimón, Botella, and González (2013) and Garcia-Gomez, Garcia-Mandico, Jimenez-Martin, and Castello (2018) for Spain, and Blake (2002) and Banks and Emmerson (2018) for the United Kingdom. For non-European countries, we use Nielson (2010) and Herscovitch and Stanton (2008) for Australia, and John and Willmore (2001) for New Zealand as reference. Also, we cross check our data set with Beetsma, Klaassen, Romp, and van Maurik (2020), in which the authors compile pension reform measures using the NATLEX database of the International Labor Organization, the International Social Security Association database, the European Commission's Labour Market Reform database, and other sources.…”

Section: Data Sourcementioning

confidence: 99%

Public Pension Reforms and Fiscal Foresight: Narrative Evidence and Aggregate Implications

Zubairy

2020

SSRN Journal

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We explore the evolution of pension policy across countries and investigate the macroeconomic impact of pension structural reforms in recent decades, in particular those with implementation delays. We first document chronological changes in pension policy for ten OECD countries between 1962 and 2017. The new data set uncovers that changes in pension policy come in waves, with a rapid expansion of pension systems between 1960s and 1980s followed by a wave of retrenchments since 1990s. Structural pension reforms, which are motivated by long-run fiscal sustainability concerns, often come with significant implementation delays. We find that in response to structural pension retrenchments without delays, people close to retirement stay in the work force longer to compensate for the decline in their pensions, leading to a decline in old-age pension spending. News about structural pension retrenchment in the future, however, lead the marginal group of population to exit the labor market prior to the reform being implemented. As a result, government spending on old age pensions tend to increase, rather than decrease, over the medium term. This channel of fiscal foresight is particularly prevalent for pension reforms that change retirement age and contribution years and that come with longer implementation delays.

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“…As the New International Version has it: 'speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves'. 1 Willmore (2001) reports that only 4 countries have universal non-means-tested schemes: New Zealand, Mauritius, Botswana and Namibia. Hancock et al (2005) say that 18 out of 30 OECD countries include a means tested component in their state systems.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Means Tests: An Evaluation of the Justice of Imposing High Rates of Clawback on Those of Modest Means

Asher

2006

SSRN Journal

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Two Legs are Better than Three: New Zealand as a Model for Old Age Pensions

Cited by 29 publications

References 4 publications

Targeting within universalism

Targeting within universalism

Public Pension Reforms and Fiscal Foresight: Narrative Evidence and Aggregate Implications

Means Tests: An Evaluation of the Justice of Imposing High Rates of Clawback on Those of Modest Means

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