收入、健康与医疗保险对老年人幸福感的影响

本文使用中国9个省、2200名55岁以上老年人的微观调查数据,主要检验了收入水平、健康状况与医疗保险对主观幸福感的影响。Ordered Logit回归分析结果表明：收入增加能够显著提高城镇老年人的主观幸福感,收入差距的影响不显著;对农村老年人而言,收入的作用不明显,而收入差距则有显著的负向影响。心理健康和城乡老年人幸福感呈高度的正相关,记忆力、日常生活自理能力等身体健康因素也具有显著的正向影响。公费医疗显著提高农村老年人的幸福感,城镇职工医疗保险和合作医疗分别对城镇和农村老年人幸福感具有积极的作用。总体上,城镇老年人的主观幸福感高于农村,东部老年人幸福感高于中部,中部高于西部。因此,增加老年人的收入水平,完善老年人医疗保险制度,并逐步协调城乡和地区经济发展,有助于从整体上提高老年人的幸福感。     

Beneficiaries of federal housing programs: A data reconnaissance

Abstract

This article reports on a reconnaissance of information systems containing data on the beneficiaries of direct and indirect federal housing expenditures. It covers data in the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, and the Treasury; the Resolution Trust Corporation; financial regulatory agencies; and secondary mortgage market actors.

Data varied widely across agencies in availability, accessibility, and quality. Data are more systematically collected for low‐income beneficiaries of housing programs than for the more affluent beneficiaries of indirect housing expenditures. The systems need improvements in data quality and coverage and database format, though they have improved recently. Many research topics can be explored with new and underused data systems: the characteristics of beneficiaries of rural housing programs, urban rental housing programs, low‐income homeownership programs, and mortgage guarantee and insurance programs. But the lack of information on the systems themselves makes data difficult to locate and access.     

The potential and limitations of mortgage innovation in fostering homeownership in the United States

Abstract

This article presents an empirical analysis of mortgage innovation as a vehicle to enable renters, especially those from traditionally underserved populations, to realize home‐ownership. It examines the financial and underwriting criteria of a typology of mortgage products, from those adhering to historical standards to some of today's most liberal loans, and develops synthetic models to account for all direct purchase costs. These models are calibrated using 1995 data on renter demographic and financial characteristics from the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

Compared with historical mortgages, today's more innovative loans increase the number of renters who could hypothetically qualify for homeownership by at least a million and expand potential home‐buying capacity by $300 billion. Certain policies could greatly expand the potential gains. Nevertheless, even the most aggressive innovations can play only a limited role in efforts to deliver the material benefits of homeownership to underserved populations.     

新型农村社会养老保险政策评估——基于土地流转制度背景下的研究

面对人口老龄化加剧、劳动力乡城流动、土地流转加速、土地养老功能弱化、农村养老需求增长的严峻局势和新农保试点扩面迅速推进的整体性战略规划,以公共政策评估和政策外部性理论为基础,从政策执行主体、政策服务对象的双重视角评估土地流转制度背景下新型农村社会养老保险政策执行状况和实施效果,通过对东、中、西部新农保试点地区的实态调查,分别获取基层政府工作人员、新农保经办机构人员、农村常住居民三类群体共2779份有效问卷,综合运用描述性统计和通径分析方法,进一步探寻改善政策效果的有效路径。研究结果表明:政府一定程度存在职能缺位、越位,立法、财政、监管责任缺失等问题,而广大农民未能将土地流转潜在养老保障功能与新农保统筹考量,使政策难以达到预期目标,可通过发挥政府主导作用、增强农民土地流转意识、提升经办机构服务能力、有效整合养老政策等具体对策,进一步促进土地流转、提高新农保参保意愿、改善政策执行与实施效果。     

The impact of real Estate Market knowledge on tenure choice: A comparison of black and white households

Abstract

Homeownership is an important social and financial achievement for most U.S. households. Various explanations have been offered for the large and persistent gap in the ownership rates of black and white households, but studies have consistently fallen short of identifying all of the causes.

The data we used were derived from a survey of the residents of the Columbus, OH, area. We argue that differences in real estate market knowledge and information affect the tenure choice decisions of black and white households. We estimate a model that is augmented to include a measure of real estate knowledge and find that additional knowledge increases the likelihood of homeownership. This holds even when we account for the endogeneity of such knowledge. We conclude that differences in real estate knowledge contribute to explaining the racial gap in homeownership rates, a finding that can be addressed through public policy interventions such as counseling programs.     

公务员参加养老保险统一改革的思路——“混合型”统账结合制度下的测算

中国当前的机关事业单位基本养老保险制度对保障退休人员待遇、稳定机关事业单位职工队伍、促进经济社会文化各项事业全面发展发挥了重要作用,但还存在很多问题,如单位保险的性质未变、碎片化倾向严重、政企待遇差过大、财政负担沉重等.提出了中国机关事业单位养老保险制度改革的基本思路和原则,即从新入职的人员开始,逐步把机关事业单位工作人员纳入全国统一的基本养老保险制度,在此基础上建立职业年金,以避免其待遇下降.最后,测算了改革和不改革情况下机关事业单位养老金支出对财政负担的不同影响.测算结果发现,虽然改革初期会增加财政负担,但是到2061年开始将会大大降低财政负担.     

The spatial mismatch hypothesis: A review of recent studies and their implications for welfare reform

Abstract

In 1992, Housing Policy Debate published John Kain's comprehensive review of the extensive scholarly literature on the spatial mismatch hypothesis. This hypothesis maintains that the suburbanization of jobs and involuntary housing market segregation have acted together to create a surplus of workers relative to the number of available jobs in submetropolitan areas where blacks are concentrated.

Since Kain's review, more than two dozen new studies on the spatial mismatch hypothesis have been completed. Generally, these studies use more suitable data and superior methodologies than earlier studies and therefore provide the most reliable evidence to date on the spatial mismatch hypothesis. This article critically reviews the new studies and assesses what implications can be drawn for welfare reform.     

第三部门与社会支持网络的构建——以受歧视和污名人群为例

伴随着我国各项改革的深入和社会转型,国家发生了许多深刻的变化,取得了巨大的成就,同时也滋生了许多社会不和谐因素,比如歧视和污名问题.改革开放既为中国第三部门创造了巨大的发展空间,也使污名和歧视问题日益严峻,导致改革面临重重困境.针对这一问题的研究有助于社会发展和经济发展的顺利进行.在对这一群体构建支持网络的过程中,明显地显现政府失灵和市场失灵,而新兴的第三部门介入该领域成为必要和可能.欲将第三部门与污名和歧视问题结合起来,以第三部门发展所取得的成就为突破口来寻求该问题的解决不失为一种新的途径.通过对目前该领域中第三部门的经验获得、问题所在、未来发展和建议意见等方面的探讨,旨在促进我国歧视和污名现象的减弱和第三部门的完善与发展.     

保险最大诚信原则是保险企业生存与发展的重要因素

最大诚信原则是保险的基本原则,保险最大诚信原则运用的目的是为了解决信息不对称、道德风险、顾客心理安全需求等问题。为完善保险业诚信体系应加强社会信用体系建设、加强保险诚信法制建设、建立保险诚信管理制度、加大诚信宣传教育、改革保险公司营销体制、加强对保险公司的诚信考评工作。     

群体污名意识的建构过程——农民工子女“被歧视感”的质性研究

农民工子女是当前中国社会变迁背景下的新生群体,城市的生活使他们建构起对自我群体的意识和群体认同。本研究将从群体过程或发展的角度出发,基于社会认同理论,分析农民工子女被歧视感这一群体污名意识形成和建构的过程。     

Access to Healthcare and Criminal Behavior: Evidence from the ACA Medicaid Expansions

I investigate the causal relationship between access to healthcare and crime following state decisions to expand Medicaid coverage after the Affordable Care Act. I combine state-level crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports for the years 2009 through 2018 with variation in insurance eligibility generated by the Medicaid expansion. Using a difference-in-differences design, my findings indicate that states that expanded Medicaid have experienced a 5.3 percent reduction in annual reported violent crime rates relative to nonexpansion states. This effect is explained by decreases in aggravated assaults and corresponds to 17 fewer incidents per 100,000 people. The estimated decrease in reported crime amounts to an annual cost savings of approximately $4 billion.     

The Birth and Growth of the Social Insurance State: Explaining Old Age and Medical Insurance Across Countries

We examine the factors leading to creation and growth ofnational Old-Age Insurance (OAI) and Health Insurance schemes.None of the theories we test fit the data very well. There isweak evidence that the probability of adopting a systemdeclines in a country's wealth and in the ethnic heterogeneityof its population. Catholic countries are more likely tocreate earnings-related OAI systems. The growth of OAIspending since 1960 has varied considerably across countries,with fast growth in countries emerging from dictatorship andnon-English speaking countries. We conclude that socialinsurance can be politically expedient for many differentreasons.     

Health Insurance in Transition: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)of 1996 (PL. 104–191) brings the federal government fullyinto insurance regulation for the first time. Despite the Republicanmajority's rhetoric about state control, election-year politicstrumped federalism. HIPAA's immediate impact oncoverage maybe modest, but its ultimate significance is great because itcreates a template for more farreaching federal involvementin regulating insurance. HIPAA amends the Employee RetirementIncome Security Act (ERISA), the Public Health Service Act,and the Internal Revenue Code, creating a complicatedstructuredictated by efforts to avoid an unfunded mandate. The historyof insurance regulation and the activity surrounding the enactmentof PL. 104–191 suggest that HIPAA continues an incrementalprocess of transition between state insurance regulation andfederal oversight driven by recent and accelerating changesin the structure of the health-care marketplace.     

性别歧视的人口后果——基于公共政策视角的模拟分析

性别歧视导致的“失踪女孩”现象对中国人口发展产生了影响。从制度、文化、经济和政策4个方面分析了中国性别歧视的成因,并结合中国政府采取的有助于降低性别歧视的公共政策,提出了相应的政策体系。根据人口模拟模型,对建议的公共政策效果进行了模拟,定量分析了不同性别歧视程度对中国人口发展的影响。结果表明,性别歧视减少了人口总量和劳动适龄人口总数,加快了人口老化程度,加剧了婚姻市场的挤压。通过性别歧视下人口发展模拟的结果,为降低男孩偏好、消除性别歧视提供经验支持,为政府制定和执行相应的公共政策提供依据。     

Public Health Insurance and Medical Spending: The Incidence of the ACA Medicaid Expansion

This paper examines the incidence of the cost burden associated with expanding public health insurance to low-income adults in the context of the Affordable Care Act. Using data from the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS), I exploit exogenous variation in Medicaid eligibility rules across states, income groups and time. I find that public insurance eligibility reduced mean out-of-pocket spending by 19.6 percent among targeted households, but it did not causally increase total expenditures among beneficiaries. Rather, Medicaid expansion shifted the burden of payment from eligible households and private insurance (21.5 percent reduction) to taxpayers in the form of public insurance (46.6 percent increase). The efficiency of these public funds can be summarized by a mean Marginal Value of Public Funds of 0.70 in the full sample, 0.99 among households with at least one pre-existing condition, and 1.26 in states with an above-median number of public hospitals.     

Political deadlocks and distributional information: The value of the veil

Contractarian normative theory relies on the veil of ignorance construct to generate the political consensus required for its theories of justice. By eliminating distributional information, the veil is presumed to facilite consensus building by reducing conflict over the distributional effects of proposed constitutional rules or institutions. This paper explores the extent to which excessive distributional information might also impede the ordinary day-to-day decision making of democratic institutions. Our analysis suggests that distributive information makes political deadlocks under majority rule more likely. Statistical evidence suggests that the efficacy of the U.S. Congress has been reduced by the dramatic increase in distributional information made available to it over the past twenty five years.The authors would like to thank an anonymous referee and the participants of the Center for Study of Public Choice Luncheon Work Shop for helpful comments and suggestions. Helpful comments were also provided by Bruce Benson and Z.A. Spindler at the 1988 meeting of the Public Choice Society. We also wish to thank Jack Triplett for providing us with a pre-publication copy of the page proofs of his piece on computer price indices.     

Firm size and regulatory compliance costs: The case of workers' compensation insurance

This paper examines the relative costs of workers' compensation insurance across firm-size groups, with particular focus on administrative scale economies (“compliance effects”) and biases in rate-setting (“enforcement effects”). Analyzing data on premiums and losses from the insurance industry, the authors find that the costs of insurance per dollar of loss are relatively high for very small firms. These higher costs reflect certain fixed administrative costs insurance companies must bear, but for extremely small firms these higher costs tend to be mitigated by an “enforcement” bias in state rate-setting outcomes. Due to imperfect experience-rating of insurance premiums, middle-sized firms—which have the highest losses—pay less per dollar of loss than either the smallest or largest firms. Indeed, it appears that large firms purchasing commercial workers' compensation insurance subsidize other size groups.     

The economics of AIDS-related health insurance regulations: Interest group influence and ideology

The projected growth in the U.S. in the number of persons with AIDS has created concern about sources of financing the costs of health care services for persons with AIDS. Private health insurers have modified or considered modifying underwriting practices in response to the AIDS epidemic, but several state governments have developed significant regulatory constraints on AIDS-related underwriting practices. We model the state government's decision to impose AIDS-related regulatory constraints (HIV testing restrictions, restrictions on the use of information about sexual orientation, and mandated AIDS coverage). We find that HIV-testing restrictions tend to be more likely in states with relatively high AIDS prevalence rates and insurance industries that are relatively weak politically. States with prevailing attitudes favorable to persons with AIDS (i.e., relatively liberal states) are more likely than other states to impose HIV-testing restrictions. Measures of prevailing attitudes (ideology) appear to be the primary determinants of regulations prohibiting questions about sexual orientation, but economic interests are the primary determinants of mandated AIDS coverage.The authors would like to acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions of Ned Becker, Janet Bronstein, David Colby, Patrick Donnelly, Roger Faith, Robert Hughes, Robert McGuire, Delfi Mondragón, Mike Morrisey, Jack Nelson and an anonymous reviewer, with the usual disclaimer.     

The erosion of retiree health benefits and retirement behavior: implications for the disability insurance program

The effects of retiree health insurance on the decision to retire have not been examined until recently. It is an area of increasing significance because of rising health care costs for retirees, the uncertain future of Medicare, and increased life expectancy. In general, studies suggest that individual retirement decisions are strongly responsive to the availability of retiree health insurance. Early retiree benefits and retirement behavior are also important because they may affect the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program. It is not apparent that if a person loses retiree health benefits, or if fewer people are eligible for retiree health benefits in general, claims for DI will increase. The potential 2-year loss of health benefits may be a deterrent to leaving the labor force and claiming DI, although persons who are unable to work would leave the labor force even without health benefits. In order to understand how the decline in retiree health benefits may affect enrollment in DI, analysts must at least incorporate the role of coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA). That act provides many people with access to health insurance during the 2-year gap between eligibility for DI and Medicare. In fact, persons with sufficient means to retire early could use the income from Disability Insurance to buy COBRA coverage during the first 2 years of DI coverage. Determining the effect of the erosion of retiree health benefits on DI must account properly for the role of other factors that affect DI eligibility and participation. The financial incentives of Social Security, pension plans, retirement savings programs, health status, the availability of health insurance, and other factors influencing retirement decisions must be taken fully into account in order to isolate the precise effect of retiree health benefits.     

论保险公司应收保费风险的成因与对策

近年来,随着金融危机的蔓延以及我国保险业的快速发展,由于保险公司自身、保险中介机构、客户等原因造成的保险公司应收保费急剧增加,直接影响着保险公司的现金流及财务稳定性,其潜在危害很大,已引起保险监管机构和各保险公司的高度关注。认真分析应收保费风险的成因及危害,采取有效措施,防范风险,具有重要的现实意义。