Pierre Pestieau's Books

The Welfare State in Europe

Economic and Social Perspectives

By: Pierre Pestieau,Mathieu Lefebvre

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Welfare State in Europe

Economic and Social Perspectives

By: Pierre Pestieau,Mathieu Lefebvre

Although in Europe there continues to be a large degree of consensus that it is the responsibility of government to ensure that nobody who is poor, sick, disabled, unemployed, or old is left deprived, there are mounting calls to roll back spending on the welfare state. It is argued that it fails to achieve its main objectives, that it is responsible for a decline in economic performance, and that it was conceived in a very different period and is therefore not adapted to modern realities. This second edition of The Welfare State in Europe: Economic and Social Perspectives provides an informed analysis of the key criticisms of the welfare state and examines the prospects of this system in an increasingly integrated world. It answers important questions regarding the current social situation of European countries, the performance of the welfare states, and the reforms that should be undertaken. It calls for fundamental changes in social policies in order to address the rising inequality that hampers social cohesion in Europe. Now focused on Europe in its entirety and including a new chapter on long term care, this new edition of an integral text on the welfare state places increased focus on social divisions and the populist vote to provide a balanced and up-to-date analysis of the performance of current systems.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

229

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0192549065

ISBN 13

9780192549068

The Welfare State in the European Union

Economic and Social Perspectives

By: Pierre Pestieau

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Welfare State in the European Union

Economic and Social Perspectives

By: Pierre Pestieau

This book offers an account of the performance of the welfare state in the European Union, and explores its future prospects in an ever evolving setting. The objectives of the welfare state are twofold: to relieve poverty and to provide a sense of security for everyone. It can be shown that over the last four decades the welfare state has been quite successful in achieving these objectives, more visibly in the Nordic countries than in the Southern or the Anglo-Saxon ones. But todaythe welfare state is at a crossroad. It is facing a variety of challenges that include demographic aging, the changing role of families, increased opportunism, economic integration and declining job security. All these challenges call for a drastic reform of the welfare state, one that requires morecontrol of abuses and more accountability. The authors that it is crucial that all the components of the welfare state be made as efficient as possible, and that if a choice has to be made between alleviating poverty and protecting individuals against lifetime risks, priority should be given to the first objective. This book devotes a chapter to each of the main social protection programs: health care, unemployment insurance, pensions and child policies. In addition, special consideration isgiven throughout to the necessary interdependence among the State, the market and the family.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

180

Publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199261016

ISBN 13

9780199261017

The Political Economy of Redistributive Social Security

By: Mr.Pierre Pestieau

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Political Economy of Redistributive Social Security

By: Mr.Pierre Pestieau

Population aging puts significant pressure on social security systems that are based mainly on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) formula and determined by the political process in which both retirees and future retirees participate. This paper demonstrates that in an economic and demographic steady state, majoritarian democracy overspends on social security. It then shows that in case of demographic shock, the regular majority process can be paralyzed by the development of entrenched interest groups that could lose from majority decisions. Depending on the way these entrenched interests operate, they can be judged more or less desirable from the viewpoint of social justice.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

Publisher

International Monetary Fund

Published Date

ISBN 10

1451859090

ISBN 13

9781451859096

The Economics of Social Protection

By: Pierre Pestieau

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Economics of Social Protection

By: Pierre Pestieau

The objective of this Element is to provide an analysis of social protection from an economic perspective. It relies on tools and methods widely used in public and insurance economics and comprises four main section besides the introduction. The first section is devoted to the design of social protection programs and their political sustainability. The second section assesses the efficiency and performance of social protection programs, and of the welfare state as a whole. In the third section, the relative merits of social and private insurance are analyzed as well as the design of optimum insurance contract with emphasis on health and pensions. The last section focuses on the implications of asymmetric information that may lead governments to adopt policies that would otherwise be rejected in a perfect information setting.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

Published Date

ISBN 10

1009295500

ISBN 13

9781009295505

The Public Economics of Changing Longevity

By: Pierre Pestieau

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

The Public Economics of Changing Longevity

By: Pierre Pestieau

Our societies are witnessing a steady increase in longevity. This demographic evolution is accompanied by some convergence across countries, but at the same time substantial longevity inequalities persist within nations across income classes. This Element aims to survey some crucial implications of changing longevity on the design of optimal public policy. For that purpose, it first focuses on some difficulties raised by risky and varying lifetime for the representation of individual and social preferences. Then, it explore some central implications of changing longevity for optimal policy making, regarding prevention against premature death, pension policies, education, health care and long-term care. The author distinguishes between the case when longevity is partially the responsibility of individuals and the case when longevity is plainly exogenous.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1009187082

ISBN 13

9781009187084

Social Security, Household, and Family Dynamics in Ageing Societies

By: Jean-Pierre Gonnot,Nico Keilman,Christopher Prinz

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Social Security, Household, and Family Dynamics in Ageing Societies

By: Jean-Pierre Gonnot,Nico Keilman,Christopher Prinz

Many industrialized countries are facing large problems with their public pension systems in the 21st century. An unfavourable age distribution, with lower population shares in working ages and increasing shares and numbers of elderly persons in the future will lead, under current pension systems, to a drop in contributions and at the same time to sharply rising amounts of benefits paid. This book analyzes the impact of dynamics in age structure and marital status composition on future public pension expenditures in twelve industrialized countries. It shows that there is no demographic response to population ageing at the horizon 2030. Neither an increase in fertility nor an inflow of migrants can rejuvenate national populations, unless fertility and/or migration reach unrealistically high levels. Therefore, the overall conclusion of this book is that demographic variables are of limited help to relieve the burden of future public pension expenditures. Substantial reductions of the public pension burden have to be sought in socioeconomic measures, and not in adjusting demographic conditions. The book includes various demographic and pension scenarios for pension costs in the coming decades for Austria, Canada, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Sweden. Not only old age pensions, but also disability and survivor pensions have been investigated. Variant projections were calculated for changes in demographic, labour force, and pension system variables. In addition, separate case studies for three countries deal with: a pension system in Austria in which benefits depend on the number children ever born; the impact of household dynamics on social security in the Netherlands, not just marriage and marriage dissolution; and with the consequences of economic growth for public pensions in Sweden.

Average ratings

N/A