1,721,353 research outputs found
On the Design of a European Health Union: Public Preferences, Trust, and Experience With the Covid‐19 Crisis
Full text linkDuring and following the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Union (EU) is taking first steps toward a European Health Union (EHU). There is no set definition of what an EHU is, but in this paper, we explore the popular support for different designs of an EHU, including a pillar in which healthcare policy competences are shared between the EU and national governments, a risk-sharing, and a redistributive pillar among countries. The analysis draws on two conjoint experiments in which respondents are presented with policy packages, as well as on a follow-up survey on political attitudes. One of the experiments focuses on a central fiscal capacity that provides financial help to countries hit by adverse shocks, including financing of national healthcare spending, while the second focuses on joint procurement of medical countermeasures. The surveys were fielded in five EU countries at the end of March/beginning of April 2020, in July 2020, and in November 2022. Our findings are the following: there is support for all three pillars of an EHU, which moreover rises with trust in the EU; respondents tend to prefer a health-related fiscal capacity to other forms of EU fiscal capacity; direct experience with serious Covid-19 infection raises both trust in the EU and support for the EU sharing in social policy competences; and more trust has a larger positive effect on support for an EHU for those without serious Covid-19 experience than for those with. These findings suggest that to promote further EU integration, the European Commission may want to develop strategies to bolster trust in the EU
Is european attachment sufficiently strong to support an EU fiscal capacity: Evidence from a conjoint experiment
Full text linkBased on a conjoint survey experiment with 10,000 respondents from France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain at the end of March/beginning of April 2020, we explore how individual characteristics shape support among Eurozone citizens for a European Union (EU) budgetary assistance instrument to combat adverse temporary or permanent economic shocks hitting EU Member States. We consider particularly the role of socioeconomic factors, such as income and education, covid fears and European attachment. Remarkably, how covid worries and European attachment affect the support for specific designs of the assistance instrument is not affected by other factors, in particular not by socioeconomic factors. These latter factors play an important role affecting support, independent of European attachment. Programs with European Commission monitoring (and recommendations) and cross-country redistribution, possibly even mandatory towards poor countries, can count on stronger support from those with higher European attachment. Those with strong covid fears are generally more in favour of EU budgetary assistance, mandatory spending of assistance on healthcare and redistribution to poor countries. Programs with Commission monitoring (and recommendations) receive extra support from high-income and highly-educated individuals. Also, the latter group specifically favors potential or mandatory cross-border redistribution. The independent role of individual European attachment suggests that instruments other than socioeconomic policies, e.g. better information provision about its use, may help raise support for an EU assistance instrument
Inter- and Intra-generational Consequences of Pension Buffer Policy under Demographic, Financial, and Economic Shocks
Full text linkWe study the inter- and intra-generational welfare consequences of alternative pension fund policies in response to unexpected demographic, financial, and macro-economic shocks. Our analysis is based on an applied OLG model of a small open economy with heterogeneous agents featuring a two-pillar pension system modelled after that in the Netherlands (with pay-as-you-go (PAYG) and funded tiers). We explore two policies to avoid underfunding of the pension funds. One emphasizes increases in the contribution rate, while the other emphasizes the reduction of indexation of pensions to price inflation and productivity growth. Our stochastic simulations show that the welfare differences between the two types of policy are generally small. They also show that the pension buffers are highly volatile when the shocks are drawn from realistically modelled multivariate shock processes. Underfunding occurs relatively frequently and in any case substantially more than anticipated by the Dutch supervisor. (JEL codes: H55, I38, C61) Copyright The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected], Oxford University Press.
The consequences of indexed debt for welfare and funding ratios in the Dutch pension system
No full textUsing a model of a two-pillar pension system, designed after and calibrated to the Dutch situation, we explore for the funding ratio of pension funds and the welfare of individuals the implications of replacing nominal debt in the pension fund s portfolio with indexed debt. We consider price-indexed, wage-indexed and longevity-indexed debt. The welfare consequences of indexed debt are only modest, while the same is the case for the e¤ect on the volatility of the funding ratio when the full menu of shocks is present. The e¤ect on the funding ratio is limited even in the presence of only the shocks to which the debt is indexed. In fact, a too large share of wage-indexed debt may destabilise the funding ratio
Consequences for Welfare and Pension Buffers of Alternative Methods of Discounting Future Pensions
No full textWe explore the implications of alternative methods of discounting future pension outlays for the valuation of funded pension liabilities. Measured liabilities affect the asset-liability ratio of pension funds and, thereby, their policies. Our framework for analysis is an applied many-generation OLG model describing a small open economy with heterogeneous agents and a two-pillar pension system (with PAYG and funded tiers) calibrated to that in the Netherlands. We compare mark-to-market discounting against various alternatives, such as discounting against a moving average of past market curves or a curve that is constant over time. The pension buffer is stabilized by adjusting indexation and contribution rates in response to demographic, economic and fi nancial shocks in the economy. Mark-to-market valuation of
liabilities produces substantially higher volatility in the pension buffers, but it also generates slightly higher aggregate welfare
Risk sharing in defined-contribution funded pension systems
Full text linkThis paper explores the introduction of collective risk-sharing elements in defined contri-bution pension contracts. We consider status-contingent, age-contingent and asset contingent risk-sharing arrangements. All arrangements raise aggregate welfare, as measured by equiva- lent variations. While working individuals hardly benefit or may even lose, retirees experience substantial welfare gains. An increase in the tax deductability of pension contributions can be beneficial for working cohorts, but comes at the cost of a reduction in aggregate welfare due to efficiency losses
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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