Retirement income security in the United Kingdom.

This article examines the U.K. retirement income security system from the American perspective. It addresses issues that most concern U.S. analysts: how the United Kingdom has kept its future public pension costs at a manageable level, the extent to which privatization of public pensions has contributed to low pension costs, the popular appeal of individual pension accounts, and the impact of privatization on retirement income. These issues are best understood in the context of the U.K. pension program's particular institutional structure and policies, two of which--"contracting out" of public pensions, and strong reliance on means-tested benefits--have been largely rejected in the evolution of U.S. policy to date. Particular use is made of recently available data on coverage rates for public and private pension programs over the total working population and administrative records on inactive personal pension accounts.     

Candidate Character vs. The Economy in the 1992 Election

The outcome of the 1992 U.S. presidential election has been explained largely as a function of perceptions of George Bush's economic performance. The economy submerged questions about Bill Clinton's character, awarding the advantage to the Democrat. In this article, we evaluate the effect of economic evaluations along with character attacks on candidate support in the 1992 presidential contest. Claims that the economy submerged character have been somewhat exaggerated. But while character remains an important issue in presidential evaluation, its role in judging candidates cannot be taken at face value. We show that both economic evaluations and character judgments are highly politicized. The findings indicate that those protesting Clinton's character turned almost exclusively to Bush. Those protesting Bush's economic record turned to both Perot and Clinton. Still, the economy did not trump character. The troubles of both major party candidates fueled a strong protest vote that contributed to Perot's strong showing.     

对沉默权制度的传统文化思考

传统文化是法律的社会历史基础和赖以生存的土壤,法律又是传统文化展现与光大的重要形式与稳固平台,二者血与肉的关系要求我们对沉默权制度的研讨应以传统文化为基本出发点;中国传统文化特有的价值取向,也决定了我们没必要也不应当确立和引入西方沉默权。从传统文化的高度对沉默权进行理智的分析和评断,将给当前有关沉默权的研讨提供一些有益启示。     

The plight of universal social services.

In the early 1960s, the motivating theme of social services in the American welfare state was reduction of economic dependency. At that time services were highly selective, aimed mainly at poor people. Between 1960 and 1980 there was a drift toward univeralism, as the welfare state expanded to serve an increasing number of middle-class groups. This expansion of the welfare state was related to several social and demographic trends, and was accompanied by basic changes in the scope and purpose of social services. As the welfare state has moved toward universal entitlement to social services, a number of contradictions between the theory and practice of universalism in a capitalist society have surfaced. These contradictions lend a degree of support to the resurgence of selectivity which the welfare state is currently experiencing.     

Reinforcement vs. change: The political influence of the media

The aim of this paper is to analyze competition between two ideological media outlets that want to influence their viewers so as to boot the number of votes for their preferred political party. We consider two ways of influencing viewers, which correspond to two prominent theories borrowed from the literature on Sociology: the “Reinforcement Approach” and the “Attitudinal Orientations Approach”. Our findings show that the aim of influencing viewers generally pushes media outlets to differentiate their opinions, and that the extend of this differentiation deeply depends on the viewers’ behavior. More precisely, we observe that if the viewers channel hop, media outlets end up differentiating their opinions more than if the viewers receive all their information from just one media.     

Self-employment income at low earnings levels.

If self-employment were much more prevalent at moderate and high earnings levels than at low levels and if the incidence of both the employee and employer taxes on wages is on the employee, then the social security tax structure would be regressive relative to taxable earnings. Analysis shows, however, that this is the case only in a very limited sense. For 1970, 6.5 percent of taxable earnings derives from self-employment. At least 6.3 percent of taxable earnings consists of self-employment income in each observed interval from $400 to $3,600. The proportion declines slightly with rising earnings until near the taxable maximum, when it begins to rise. If the average tax rate on earnings up to the maximum were tabulated by earnings both below and above the maximum, it appears very likely that mild regressivity would be shown beyond the taxable maximum, but of not more than a few tenths of a percent.     

The relationship between income and material hardship

This paper examines the relationship between income and the extent of material hardship and explores other factors that might affect hardship. Using panel data from the Women's Employment Study, we examine the incidence of material hardship from 1997 to 2003 among current and former welfare recipients. We then consider the extent to which income is associated with hardship. We show that hardship decreases monotonically across quintiles of the income distribution for several income measures. When we measure income as the average across the 6‐year study period, a 10 percent increase in average income is associated with a 1.1 percentage point decrease in the likelihood of experiencing a hardship, a drop of about 3.4 percent. We also find that the relationship between transitory changes in income and hardship is weak. These results are consistent with findings based on a nationally representative sample of disadvantaged households from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Our results indicate that observable factors, such as measures of mental health, are more strongly related to hardship than current income. © 2008 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Nonmoney income and the elderly: The case of the tweeners

This paper examines the degree of economic security experienced by the population aged 65 and over. Elderly people in the United States now enjoy an average degree of economic well being that is high relative to the younger population. Within that average there is variance, however. This analysis finds that elderly persons in the lower-middle income range—within 100 and 200 percent of the poverty line—are economically more vulnerable than either those of high income or those below the poverty threshold. Virtually all of the elderly benefit from social security retirement income (OASI) and Medicare. The poor receive in addition substantial means-tested cash and in-kind transfers, and the well-to-do receive enough additional subsidies and tax-free income to leave them better off after government intervention than before it. But those in between—the tweeners—are more likely to rent unsubsidized housing, are less likely to have non-Medicare health subsidies, and are more likely to rely on OASI as their primary source of income. When facing economic or health problems, the only way they can improve their well being is to spend themselves down to penury and thereby qualify for means-tested cash and in-kind transfers, in the form of Medicuid and Supplemental Security Income. Policy implications of these findings are discussed in closing.     

The role of income in the formation of new cities

The richest neighborhoods in the unincorporated suburbs have a stronger incentive to form a new city to escape the redistribution that is occurring there. Wealthy families also may desire to establish a new city if this enables the provision of government services that middle income voters would not fund. With three different measures of household well being??based on educational attainment, income, and home values??we consistently found that the relatively wealthier neighborhoods were more likely to be part of a new city by the end of the decade. Population density also played a big role