Benefit adequacy in state workers' compensation programs

This article summarizes several different methods used to measure the adequacy of wage replacement in state workers' compensation systems in the United States. Empirical research casts serious doubt on benefit adequacy, especially in the case of more serious disabilities.     

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.     

Recent trends in the Social Security Disability Insurance Program

Earlier analysis documented the rapid growth of the Disability Insurance (DI) program from 1966 to 1975; this article discusses trends since 1975. Over the decade of the 1970's, the population insured for disability increased by 34 percent, and women as a proportion of the insured population rose from 32.4 percent in 1970 to 39.1 percent in 1980, reflecting the increase in female labor-force participation. Of disabled workers receiving benefits, the proportion that were women rose from 28.4 percent in 1970 to 32.4 percent in 1979. Although inflation caused total benefit costs to rise over the entire period, the number of DI beneficiaries began to decline in 1978. Disabled-worker awards reached a peak in 1975 and fell subsequently so that the 1969 and 1981 figures are approximately equal. Relative to 1970, the fraction of awards going to women increased, the share for persons aged 50-54 rose, and the proportion received by those aged 60-64 declined. Decreased in total awards, and hence recipients, stemmed primarily from higher rates of denial at both the initial application and the reconsideration stages. Higher denials were countered by substantial rises in the number of hearings and reversals by administrative law judges (ALJ's). in 1980, only 65 percent of all awards came from initial applications, while over a fourth resulted from ALJ reversals. In future years, recent legislative changes may be expected to curtail program expansion further.     

“Carve‐outs” from the workers' compensation system

Decentralized regulation has become increasingly important in many areas; examples range from school vouchers to workplace safety committees to alternative dispute resolution procedures replacing courts. Consistent with this trend, in 1993 California permitted construction unions and employers to “carve out” their own workers' compensation system. This study examines California's early experience with carve‐outs by analyzing two case studies, a survey of all carve‐outs in existence during the study period, and preliminary data on costs and dispute frequency at one carve‐out. Overall, carve‐outs do not appear to harm employees, and sometimes they help. At the same time, data analysis of one carve‐out showed it had no effect on costs and dispute rates. Moreover, the low involvement of union officials and the many issues that overlap other parts of workplace regulation raise concerns about decentralizing workers' compensation. Lessons can be learned for other spheres of regulation. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Recent trends in the European Union trade and investment policy towards China

The last decades＇ trend towards the creation of a world market of goods and services and the upsurge of China as a global competitor ought to be considered as an important challenge for the European Union. In contrast to this interpretation, the European Union policy towards China has suffered from an absence from a long run view. European institutional behaviour has been based on applying measures that were solely reactions to the policies launched by the United States. Finally, the difficulty of finding common interests among all member countries has been a constant in the relationship with China. The European Union has recently shown a clear concern about the unavoidable need of improving European firms＇ competitiveness, especially in order to overcome the Chinese access to the internationalised division of labour. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to observe a thorough treatment for the economic challenge of emergent economies as a whole in many European policy measures.     

Close-of-the-century trends in Mexican urbanization

"This article reviews the main characteristics of Mexican urban development during the eighties through the study of its spatial-demographic aspects and the changes in the space-sector structure of [the] economy, and suggests a prospect of national urbanization for the nineties.... The main point is to illustrate and explain why the eighties can be considered a milestone in urban development, [introducing] a new trend in Mexican urbanization which will consolidate during the nineties." (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

我国农民工权益保障创新的路径选择

农民工是在我国经济社会转型阶段从农民阶级中分化出来的特殊社会群体,他们的权益经常受到不法侵害。农民工和城市职工在政治、经济上是平等的,它们的合法权益理应受到保护。保障农民工的合法权益,必须进行路径创新。     

Older workers' progression from private disability benefits to Social Security disability benefits

People with medical conditions that limit their ability to work tend to receive short-term disability benefits initially and may then move to long-term and eventually to permanent disability benefits. The progression of older workers (those aged 55 to 64) along that continuum of benefits is documented here with data from a large disability insurance company. The data show that older workers who receive short-term medical disability benefits are three times as likely as younger workers to progress to receipt of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, although a slight reversal of that trend occurs as workers pass age 62. Musculoskeletal conditions are the most frequent basis of short-term disability claims among older workers, with circulatory conditions running a close second. Furthermore, although all medical conditions are more likely to lead to SSDI benefits among older workers, circulatory conditions do so most frequently. This article discusses industry standards for the management of disability claims at each level of severity. It also addresses common and emerging disability management practices that may reduce the likelihood of impaired workers developing long-term or permanent financial dependence on disability benefits programs.     

The role of compensation in siting hazardous facilities

Empirical evidence indicates that compensation can prove effective in gaining public acceptance for siting facilities on the benign end of the spectrum (e.g., landfills, prisons), but is subject to serious limitations when it comes to facilities that the public regards as particularly risky or of questionable legitimacy such as nuclear waste repositories. These facilities require creative mitigation measures such as independent inspections of the facility and local shutdown power. Even then they may be viewed as too risky to be acceptable with or without compensation. This article proposes a two-stage siting process which recognizes the importance of regulations and safety standards (Stage 1) while employing a voluntary process with compensation to address concerns with equity and efficiency (Stage 2).     

Developments and trends in Social Security, 1990-1992: overview of principal trends.

The article that follows is a reprint of Part I of a report presented by Dalmer D. Hoskins, Secretary General of the International Social Security Association (ISSA), to the organization's XXIVth General Assembly (November 1992, Acapulco). It identifies and interprets the major trends currently influencing the evolution of social security programs around the world, and analyzes these developments against the backdrop of the current economic, demographic, and social environment in which these programs operate. (Part II of the report analyzes the changes according to each major branch of social security; an annex to the report provides more detailed information and source citations in reference to these changes.) The ISSA is a nongovernmental international organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is made up of 321 social security-related institutions, including the U.S. Social Security Administration, in 122 countries. The Association's aim is to protect, promote, and develop social security worldwide.     

公共政策研究的新进展

近年来,公共政策研究正变得越来越多样化,出现了大量方法和理论,也表现为这些研究分散在各种特定领域的政策中。国家概念是政策理论的中心,但要将国家理论应用于政策研究却不容易“。阶段”方法是政策研究中长期以来占主导地位的研究方法之一,但它只是一种初级方法。新制度主义方法将政策制定过程推向了一种重要的比较分析方式,为解释政策的异同提供了制度解释维度,但它太笼统,考虑范围过于宽泛。而新制度主义者经常选择特定政策领域或部门进行分析,这是一个重要进展,因为政策制定是在特定部门或领域中进行的,仅仅集中关注国家及其行政、立法、司法机构是不够的。政策网络方法体现了研究者对于政策制定中国家与社会组织之间更普遍、更早的兴趣,但它除了描述外并不能帮助我们在理论发展中走得更远。理性方法是一个很有用的方法,当然它不能把理性选择作为对决策的惟一解释。在合作模式中,国家及其各个层次不再被看作合作的惟一机制,它表明市场和网络作为合作的另一种机制或原则正越来越受到重视。而时下十分流行的治理理论并没有形成真正行之有效的手段和方法,它可能仅仅是一个时髦词汇。如果把治理的要点放在使国家、市民社会、市场、网络这些不同工具和机制的互相协作上,治理就会成为一个有创造性的和深刻的分析方法。