This thesis attempts to analyze the major factors which led to landmarks in the evolution of social security in Greece during the turbulent period between 1920 and 1990. The development of hundreds of different social insurance schemes and the lack of reliable information makes a full history almost impossible. The landmarks are chosen both for their impact on population coverage as well as for the principles they established. The first ever state social insurance was introduced in 1922 followed by the Social Insurance Organization (IKA) in 1934 - the compulsory scheme for white and blue collar workers in the urban areas; in the post war period there were desperate efforts to establish social assistance to help the casualties of the Second World War and the successive civil war. An attempt to reorganize IKA failed in 1951. Agricultural social insurance was established in 1961. Finally the repressive social insurance reform of 1990 attempted to correct the social policies of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Seventy years after the early state social insurance policies, the nature of the Greek social security system is unique - a mosaic of almost four hundred social insurance funds - reproducing huge inequalities, inconsistencies and inefficiencies. Moreover, the "system" reached a financial deadlock in the late 1980s, threatening the country itself with bankruptcy. The faulty development of the social security system reflects the irresponsibility, indecisiveness and opportunism of Greek politics, not met in other European countries. What is shown is that the social security model in Greece is embarrassingly characterized as an accumulation of political bribes in favour of particular socio-professional groups. Rational decisions have never been taken. In fact, social policy is meant and used as a form of social politics.

Since social security involves several individual parameters, in recent years considerable attention has been focused on the impact these parameters on pension and social security systems. The literature on pensions has long been highlighting concerns that public Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) pension systems will turn out to be unsustainable in the long run and are a concern for most countries around the world, from the industrialised nations to the developing countries. The common trend in responses to what is a pensions crisis is a wave of parametric pension adjustments during the last years. These parametric reforms include, among others, changes in the contribution ceilings, increases in the retirement age, reductions in the indexation of pensions or even carrying out a structural reform from a Defined Benefit pension system to a Notional Defined Contribution (NDC). Following this process of reforming the pension system, this thesis is focused on the most important innovation in public pension schemes over the past years, first on Actuarial Balancing Mechanism (ABM) in PAYGO and second in some aspects of the Notional Defined Contributions, both in a deterministic framework. The ABM mechanism, that uses non-linear optimization models, identifies and applies an optimal path of these variables into a PAYGO system and absorbs fluctuations in longevity, fertility rates, life expectancy or any other events in a pension system. For the NDC, the Survivor Dividend (SD), also called inheritance gains, kept by most NDCs is analysed under different assumptions to calculate the maximum mortality decrease a scheme can cover if the SD is not distributed and whether the SD is a potential solution to cover the longevity. The research has considerable potential impact. It addresses a clear need in political, business, economic and societal contexts. This project also bridges the gap between academics and policy makers for better pension's public policies under alternative financial and economic scenarios. As a result, it will allow to design and assess the path of reforms in a more efficient manner. Further development will include a stochastic framework, considering stochastic dynamic programming, robustness, sensitivity analysis and error bounds.

This study presents findings from evaluating, ex ante, the options, implications and feasibility of a major health financing policy change from a largely tax-based to a principles. system following universal national health insurance (NHI) The case country used is Jamaica a small middle-income country faced with contribution-based fiscal and health financing constraints and prodded into the policy choice of persistent NHI in 1996 by recommendations of consultants, international organizations as well as the opportunity provided by its externally funded Health Reform Programme (1997-2005). The approach adopted was to define NHI options by commencing with government's in its 1997 Green Paper on NH! as the baseline; ascertaining from local proposals stakeholderstheir recommendationsfor an NHI plan and eliciting lessonsand design variables from the international experiencewith NHI-type systemsto derive a prototype. This was followed by financial modelling of likely inflows and outflows in each option; assessmentof their merits and viability using criteria such as population coverage, benefits, risk pooling, equity, efficiency, and size of contributions by government; and ranking of scoresto derive a preferred option. workers and As an ex ante analysis (since NHI has not been implemented in Jamaica), the the prototype to be the highest ranked option. It also found that found continuing study macroeconomic difficulties, institutional weaknesses and likely opposition from key stakeholders - factors which affected confidence and derailed the 1997 NHI some proposals for In terms of overall significance, the study highlights international - would still pose major challenges decision makers and planners. ambivalence over design benefit aspects of NHI such as single package and timing of universal coverage. For implementing NHI in Jamaica,it vs. suggestsareas for further research and action such as specifying and phasing benefits; improving aswell asachieving collection systems, quality of health services and targeting stakeholder consensus.

In Britain each year thousands of people are injured in accidents on the roads or at work and pursue claims for personal injury compensation. Previous research has indicated that a significant number will have difficulty returning to work, or may never return. Contrary to popular belief, failure to return to employment may not be due so much to "compensation neurosis" as to a complex interaction of many factors. However, whatever the factors involved, it is evident that the longer a person is away from work following injury or illness the less likely he or she is to return. Nevertheless it appears that employment issues frequently are not considered during the recovery period, or are addressed at such a late stage that any help is unlikely to be useful. Moreover contact with vocational rehabilitation services which might assist people to return to work is poor. The aim of this study was to implement and evaluate a service specifically to help personal injury claimants return to work. The service comprised one person, acting as a co-ordinator, whose role was to help people identify and obtain assistance from those voluntary and statutory services which might facilitate their return to work. The service was evaluated within the context of a randomised controlled trial. People in the experimental group received help for six months during which time the control group received no help. An amendment to the design extended the period of help to the experimental group to 12 months and introduced a period of six months help for the control group after the six months re-assessment. Measures of outcome included perceived health status, level of anxiety and depression and various employment outcomes such as contact with services and return to work. Satisfaction with the service was also examined. Fifty people were recruited to the study. Random allocation on a ratio of 2:1 resulted in 33 people being allocated to the experimental group and 17 to the control group. The main comparison of outcomes at six months showed no statistically significant differences between the two groups except the control group registered lower scores for depression. The satisfaction survey showed that a high percentage of people were very satisfied with the service and valued the help they had been given. A number of factors were thought to contribute to the lack of positive findings at six months including a small sample size, which affected the ability to detect anything other than large "treatment" effects. Six months appeared to be an inadequate length of time in which to achieve beneficial outcomes and exploratory analysis, indicating an improvement in employment status for the experimental group at 12 months compared with six months, suggested this might be the case though no causal inference could be made. A qualitative analysis of the study indicated that people required much more help than merely linking them to services and much of this help, such as good training or re-training programmes, was outside the scope of the coordinator service.

A question of great interest to China watchers is whether or not central mandates are successfully implemented, and how. The issues surrounding this question are at the heart of the analysis in this thesis about China's attempts to institute social health insurance schemes in rural areas from 1949 to 2007. The thesis looks at central government attempts to institute social health insurance schemes between 1949 and 2007 and tries to explain the significant variation in enrolment in social health insurance across this experience. The study shows that implementation of social health insurance schemes in rural China, measured in terms of their widespread uptake, succeeded on two occasions. There also have been a number of failures and collapses of social health insurance schemes in rural China. To explain the variation, the thesis first constructs a framework of how rank and authority of decrees work in the Chinese Communist Party. This framework allows an evaluation of how implementation decrees are transmitted down from the centre to local areas (who implement policy). The thesis argues that the issuing of a central decree holding the local Party secretary to account for high enrolment is the necessary and sufficient condition for the central government to ensure high enrolment in social health insurance schemes. The issuing of a central decree is shown only to be a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition. And the holding of the local Party secretary to account must occur through the Party governance system rather than through the health governance system. The thesis shows that the rise, fall, failure to rise, and then unexpected rise of social health insurance can be explained by the systems of coordination and control used to hold the local Party secretary responsible for ensuring high levels of enrolment in health insurance. It shows that only the local Party secretary can mobilise the local state sufficiently to meet central decree. And only certain central decrees can motivate the local Party secretary sufficiently to mobilise the local state. The thesis concludes by applying this framework to broader questions of health system reform in modern-day China. It draws tentative conclusions as to how wider health system reform can be understood through the thesis' analytical framework and suggests testing this framework in other policy contexts.

Despite the critical nature of the Social Security Contribution Evasion (SSCE) phenomenon, relatively few studies have investigated and analysed the problem. The vast majority of contemporary studies have been undertaken in the USA and Europe; very few in the countries of the developing world. This relative dearth of empirical studies on the SSCE clearly indicates a gap in our knowledge given the absence of reliable empirical evidence towards the cause and the extent of the problem. What is more, current taxation literature is clear in that it shows us that most studies are focused mainly on the individual taxpayer and the relation of these taxpayers to the general role of personal income tax. This is odd as there is a significant evasion problem in other domains, especially in areas such as where companies deliberately choose to evade social security contributions amongst others. What this thesis essentially sets out to do is to empirically examine the relationships between the SSCE and several explanatory factors related to the particular context of Jordan from the perspective of former corporate contribution evaders. This thesis gives special attention to Economic Factors (EF) (e.g. tax rate, and fine rate) and Non-Economic Factors (NEF) (e.g. the impact of the Corporation Management Effectiveness (CME), the Legal and Regulatory Structure (LRS), and Ethical and Social Considerations (ESC)). To the researcher’s knowledge, there is no study in Jordan that has investigated the problem of contribution evasion from the former corporate contribution evaders’ perspective. The aim of this dissertation is to fill this gap by evaluating the nature of contribution evasion at firm level and to develop an understanding of the main reasons why contribution evasion occurs in Jordan. To achieve the research objectives, this study uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The quantitative approach is represented here by multiple regression analysis that relies on the use of a self-administered questionnaire. The qualitative approach, however, is represented by the appliance of semi-structured interviews with key participants. In this study, stratified random probability samples were chosen from the target population of 2264 firms.

This DBA thesis is an empirical study of the new private pension programme in Thailand, an Employee’s Choice (EC) programme, which is structured as a self-directed defined contribution plan that permits workers to make their own investment decisions for their pension assets. The growing acceptance of the new pension programme is placing greater responsibility for managing pension assets on workers. The shift from committee-directed pension plans to self-directed pension plans has meant that Thai workers now must make investment decisions, such as what type of plan to choose and how to allocate their pension assets among different asset classes. This raises some concerns about the financial literacy of workers and their ability to make informed decisions. This study aims to analyse the effectiveness of this programme by examining empirical evidence from a case study. Specifically, it asks whether workers are able to make appropriate investment decisions for their pension plans as investment theory has suggested. This study has shown that the new pension programme in this case study is effective. Most importantly, the study finds that, regardless of their level of financial literacy, workers are able to make reasonable investment choices as suggested by portfolio and lifecycle investing theories. Specifically, when workers were offered investment options ranging from low risk to high risk, workers are able to choose investment choices consistent with their age and risk tolerance. However, this study finds that financial literacy does matter if workers are asked to make asset allocation decisions instead of choosing between options. The study finds that workers with low levels of financial literacy are likely to allocate less of their pension assets in equities. The findings from this study make several contributions to the growing literature on household finance. In addition, this study has a number of important management implications for pension design. With the simple plan design which offers choices ranging from low risk to high risk, workers appear to make rational investment decisions regardless of their level of financial knowledge. Therefore, the simple plan design could be very useful for workers who have less financial knowledge. This research has also shown that many workers do not plan to review or revise their portfolios as lifecycle theory has suggested. The implication from this study is that the new self-directed pension programme is not effective in the long-run. There is, therefore, a definite need for a better pension design. Innovative pension design should be used in order to minimize workers’ investment mistakes. This study advocates the use of lifecycle funds and recommends policymakers to promote and support the usage of lifecycle funds in the Thai private pension context.

A large body of research finds correlations between unemployment and health. This raises the question of whether unemployment benefit programs, which aim to alleviate financial stress associated with job loss, have their own health effects. Although existing studies indicate that receiving unemployment benefits is likely protective for health, most studies do not account for the potentially endogenous relationship between unemployment benefit receipt and individual characteristics. Since not all unemployed people are eligible for, or receive unemployment benefits, estimates of the health effects of unemployment benefits may be biased. This thesis aims to better understand whether unemployment benefits have a causal effect on health by taking advantage of quasi-experimental variations in unemployment benefit programs in the United States. In the first study, I investigate whether the presence of generous State unemployment benefit programs results in fewer suicides during labour market downturns. In the second study, I use longitudinal data to explore whether State unemployment benefit generosity buffers the impact of job loss on self-reported health. The third study examines whether unemployment benefit eligibility expansions lead to greater participation in physically active leisure. Lastly, I use an instrumental variables approach to estimate the self-reported health effects of receiving unemployment benefits. Across all four studies, I consistently find evidence that unemployment benefits have a health promoting effect in the short-term: unemployment benefits are associated with lower suicide rates, better self-reported health and increased physical activity. While the precise mechanisms remain uncertain, I argue that unemployment benefits may positively affect health by subsidizing income and leisure time, both of which can be beneficial for physical and mental health. Although unemployment benefits are unlikely to be a costeffective approach to improve health, the results indicate that policymaker efforts to reduce or limit access to unemployment benefits may lead to unanticipated adverse health effects.

Text in Afrikaans / Social security is an important instrument of government to reduce the risks of economic insecurity to indivi~uals and the community. Social security usually consists of social insurance (for example pensions, unemployment insurance and workmen's compensation) and social assistance (for example social pensions, disability grants and maintenance grants). In view of South Africa's low economic growth, high and rising unemployment, widespread poverty, skew distribution of income and the disintegration of the family, social security requires urgent attention. This issue is even more pressing during the political transition since most policy measures and institutions are reconsidered, while pressure on government expenditure increases. This study commences with a discussion of basic aspects of social security, such as its definition, the rationale for social security in a market economy, the possible influence on economic behaviour, targeting, the financing of social security through a payroll tax and general taxation and the financing of a national pension fund. One of the sources of information of social security is the experience of other countries in this regard. The second part, which constitutes the core of the study, involves a comparative study of social security. After a general discussion on comparative studies, the origin and development of social security in welfare states (the USA, Britain and the Netherlands) and developing countries (Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba and Sri Lanka) are studied. African countries and the "miracle" countries of the East also receive brief attention. The main emphasis is on equity and efficiency, and aspects such as affordability, financing, targeting, the extension of coverage, a negative income tax, traditional social security and specific programmes that could be of importance to South Africa. In the last section the origin and development of and the fiscal scope for social security are discussed. Besides social insurance and assistance, programmes such as in-kind transfers, public works programmes and tax expenditure receive attention. Aspects of social security such as poverty alleviation, means testing, take-up rates, administration and corruption are discussed, while recommendations are made on topics such as a "voluntarily" national pension scheme, employment creation programmes and food stamps. / Bestaansbeveiliging is 'n belangrike instrument in die hande van die owerheid om die risiko' s van ekonomiese onsekerheid vir individue en die gemeenskap te verminder. Bestaansbeveiliging bestaan gewoonlik uit maatskaplike versekering (waaronder pensioene, werkloosheidsversekering en ongevalleversekering) en maatskaplike bystand (byvoorbeeld maatskaplike pensioene, ongeskiktheidstoelaes en onderhoudstoelaes). In die lig van Suid-Afrika se lae ekonomiese groei, hoe en stygende werkloosheid, wydverspreide armoede, skewe verdeling van inkome en gesinsverbrokkeling, verg bestaansbeveiliging dringende aandag. Die aangeleentheid is des te dringender gedurende die politieke oorgangsperiode waartydens die meeste beleidsmaatreels en instellings in heroorweging geneem word en daar voortdurend druk op die owerheid is om meer van die land se skaars bronne te gebruik. Ter inleiding word enkele kemaspekte van bestaansbeveiliging bespreek, waaronder die definisie daarvan, die rasionaal vir bestaansbeveiliging in 'n markekonomie, die moontlike invloed van bestaansbeveiliging op ekonomiese gedrag, die rol van teikenstelling, die finansiering van bestaansbeveiliging deur middel van 'n loonstaatbelasting en algemene belastings en die finansiering van 'n nasionale pensioenfonds. Een bron van inligting oar bestaansbeveiliging is die ervaring van ander lande op hierdie terrein. Die tweede gedeelte, wat die kern van die studie is, behels 'n vergelykende studie van bestaansbeveiliging. Na 'n inleidende bespreking oar vergelykende studies in die algemeen, word die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van bestaansbeveiliging in welvaartstate (die VSA, Brittanje en Nederland) en in ontwikkelende lande (Chili, Mexiko, Guatemala, Kuba en Sri Lanka) bestudeer. Afrikalande en die "mirakel-lande" van die Coste kry oorsigtelik aandag. Die nadruk in die gedeelte val veral op billikheid en doeltreffendheid en aspekte soos bekostigbaarheid, finansiering, teikenstelling, uitbreiding van dekking, negatiewe inkomstebelasting, tradisionele bestaansbeveiliging en programme wat vir Suid-Afrika van betekenis kan wees. In die laaste gedeelte word die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van en die fiskale ruimte vir bestaansbeveiliging in Suid-Afrika bespreek. Benewens maatskaplike versekering en bystand, kry programme soos in natura oordragte, openbare werke-programme (werkskeppingsprogramme) en belastinguitgawes aandag. Aspekte van bestaansbeveiliging soos armoedeverligting, die middeletoets, opneemkoerse, administrasie en korrupsie word bespreek en aanbevelings word onder me er gemaak ten opsigte van 'n "vrywillige" nasionale pensioenskema, werkskeppingsprogramme en voedselkoepons. / Sociology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Ekonomie)

Text in Afrikaans / Social security is an important instrument of government to reduce the risks of economic insecurity to indivi~uals and the community. Social security usually consists of social insurance (for example pensions, unemployment insurance and workmen's compensation) and social assistance (for example social pensions, disability grants and maintenance grants). In view of South Africa's low economic growth, high and rising unemployment, widespread poverty, skew distribution of income and the disintegration of the family, social security requires urgent attention. This issue is even more pressing during the political transition since most policy measures and institutions are reconsidered, while pressure on government expenditure increases. This study commences with a discussion of basic aspects of social security, such as its definition, the rationale for social security in a market economy, the possible influence on economic behaviour, targeting, the financing of social security through a payroll tax and general taxation and the financing of a national pension fund. One of the sources of information of social security is the experience of other countries in this regard. The second part, which constitutes the core of the study, involves a comparative study of social security. After a general discussion on comparative studies, the origin and development of social security in welfare states (the USA, Britain and the Netherlands) and developing countries (Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba and Sri Lanka) are studied. African countries and the "miracle" countries of the East also receive brief attention. The main emphasis is on equity and efficiency, and aspects such as affordability, financing, targeting, the extension of coverage, a negative income tax, traditional social security and specific programmes that could be of importance to South Africa. In the last section the origin and development of and the fiscal scope for social security are discussed. Besides social insurance and assistance, programmes such as in-kind transfers, public works programmes and tax expenditure receive attention. Aspects of social security such as poverty alleviation, means testing, take-up rates, administration and corruption are discussed, while recommendations are made on topics such as a "voluntarily" national pension scheme, employment creation programmes and food stamps. / Bestaansbeveiliging is 'n belangrike instrument in die hande van die owerheid om die risiko' s van ekonomiese onsekerheid vir individue en die gemeenskap te verminder. Bestaansbeveiliging bestaan gewoonlik uit maatskaplike versekering (waaronder pensioene, werkloosheidsversekering en ongevalleversekering) en maatskaplike bystand (byvoorbeeld maatskaplike pensioene, ongeskiktheidstoelaes en onderhoudstoelaes). In die lig van Suid-Afrika se lae ekonomiese groei, hoe en stygende werkloosheid, wydverspreide armoede, skewe verdeling van inkome en gesinsverbrokkeling, verg bestaansbeveiliging dringende aandag. Die aangeleentheid is des te dringender gedurende die politieke oorgangsperiode waartydens die meeste beleidsmaatreels en instellings in heroorweging geneem word en daar voortdurend druk op die owerheid is om meer van die land se skaars bronne te gebruik. Ter inleiding word enkele kemaspekte van bestaansbeveiliging bespreek, waaronder die definisie daarvan, die rasionaal vir bestaansbeveiliging in 'n markekonomie, die moontlike invloed van bestaansbeveiliging op ekonomiese gedrag, die rol van teikenstelling, die finansiering van bestaansbeveiliging deur middel van 'n loonstaatbelasting en algemene belastings en die finansiering van 'n nasionale pensioenfonds. Een bron van inligting oar bestaansbeveiliging is die ervaring van ander lande op hierdie terrein. Die tweede gedeelte, wat die kern van die studie is, behels 'n vergelykende studie van bestaansbeveiliging. Na 'n inleidende bespreking oar vergelykende studies in die algemeen, word die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van bestaansbeveiliging in welvaartstate (die VSA, Brittanje en Nederland) en in ontwikkelende lande (Chili, Mexiko, Guatemala, Kuba en Sri Lanka) bestudeer. Afrikalande en die "mirakel-lande" van die Coste kry oorsigtelik aandag. Die nadruk in die gedeelte val veral op billikheid en doeltreffendheid en aspekte soos bekostigbaarheid, finansiering, teikenstelling, uitbreiding van dekking, negatiewe inkomstebelasting, tradisionele bestaansbeveiliging en programme wat vir Suid-Afrika van betekenis kan wees. In die laaste gedeelte word die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van en die fiskale ruimte vir bestaansbeveiliging in Suid-Afrika bespreek. Benewens maatskaplike versekering en bystand, kry programme soos in natura oordragte, openbare werke-programme (werkskeppingsprogramme) en belastinguitgawes aandag. Aspekte van bestaansbeveiliging soos armoedeverligting, die middeletoets, opneemkoerse, administrasie en korrupsie word bespreek en aanbevelings word onder me er gemaak ten opsigte van 'n "vrywillige" nasionale pensioenskema, werkskeppingsprogramme en voedselkoepons. / Sociology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Ekonomie)