First published in 1948, the International Social Security Review is the principal international quarterly publication in the field of social security.
This special issue selectively addresses the relationship linking social security systems, inclusive growth and social cohesion. Inclusive growth and social cohesion are viewed as political expedient and necessary goals for national economies. The desirability of their attainment reflects political pragmatism, the “social contract”, as much as it does a commitment to the wider emancipative goal of social justice. The International Social Security Association (ISSA) has often paraphrased these assertions to argue that there can be “no social justice without social security”. Of course, progress achieved towards the realization of the goals of inclusive growth and social cohesion should be equally beneficial for the adequacy, sustainability and coverage of social security systems. The aim of this special issue is to unpack and better understand the nature of this relationship.
In this article, we study how social expenditure is related to poverty, income inequality and GDP growth. Our main contribution is to disentangle these relationships by the following social expenditure schemes: 1) old age and survivors, 2) incapacity, 3) health, 4) family, 5) unemployment and active labour market policies and 6) housing and others. For this purpose, we employ OLS and 2SLS regression models using a panel data set for 22 Member States of the European Union from 1990 until 2015. We find total public social expenditure to be negatively related to poverty and inequality, but not related to GDP growth. The results vary substantially between the different social expenditure schemes, which makes more accurate targeting possible.
The objective of this article is to analyse the performance of Ecuador’s pension system and the challenges it will face in the future. Over the last 13 years, the pension system has made significant advances in terms of coverage and adequacy. However, demographic ageing is straining the financial sustainability of the contributory scheme. In this context, a number of public policy areas are identified, in terms of parameters and structures, which, together with the expansion of non-contributory coverage, could provide a more equitable and sustainable scheme.
The main objective of this article is to determine, based on internal data, replacement rates for a defined benefit pension system, with two aims: the adequacy of pensions – measured in terms of the expenditure of retirees – and the sustainability of the system. For this purpose two instruments are used: the internal rate of return, and techniques based on systems of notional accounts. These figures, derived from internal data, will serve, by comparison with the replacement rate of the system, to assess whether the system tends more towards adequacy or sustainability. The system studied is that of Spain.
In the context of the reform of defined benefit pension systems under population ageing, we focus on the introduction of automatic adjustment mechanisms linked to life expectancy. Our goal is to establish a relationship between changes in the key parameters of the pension system and changes in life expectancy, applying the principle of intergenerational actuarial neutrality. For a defined benefit pension scheme, we first obtain the fundamental adjustment equation and then, for particular cases, we derive different designs of automatic adjustment mechanisms depending on the involved parameter. We include a numerical application only for illustrative purposes.
Nigeria has a predominantly youthful population and limited job opportunities in the formal labour market, which makes the search for formal employment difficult and can be conducive to the growth of exploitative working conditions. As one response to address the vulnerability of Nigerian workers, the Employee's Compensation Act was passed into law in December 2010. Of note, the Act includes provisions for compensation for mental health injuries, or “mental stress”, suffered in the course of employment. The article examines the strengths and weaknesses of the provisions, in particular the premise for mental health injury claims made in the Act. The wider policy implications of the Act as regards the development of compensation for mental health injuries in sub‐Saharan Africa are discussed and suggestions for the future review of the Act offered.
This article analyses the risk of disability facing workers who contribute to the Argentinian Integrated Social Security System (Sistema Integrado Previsional Argentino— SIPA). Using administrative records as our source of data for the period 2000‐2006, the results indicate that 1.46 workers per 1,000 became disabled annually during that period. The risk of disability rates were higher for men than for women, but increased with age for both sexes. The risk of disability rates have also been broken down by pathology and social security scheme, taking the effects of age and sex into account. To conclude, international comparisons are presented.
Most countries have separate pension plans for public‐sector employees. The future fiscal burden of these plans can be substantial as the government usually is the largest employer, pension promises in the public sector tend to be relatively generous, and future payments have to be paid out directly from government revenues (pay‐as‐you‐go) or by funded plans (pension funds) which tend to be underfunded. The valuation and disclosure of these promises in some countries lacks transparency, which may hide potentially huge fiscal liabilities to be passed on to future generations of workers. In order to arrive at a fair comparison between countries regarding the fiscal burden of their public‐sector pension plans, this article recommends that unfunded pension liabilities should be measured and reported according to a standard approach for reasons of fiscal transparency and better policy‐making. From a sample of Member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development, the size of the net unfunded liabilities as of the end of 2008 is estimated in fair value terms. This fiscal burden can also be interpreted as the implicit pension debt in fair value terms.