It is necessary and desirable for Armenia to retain close relations with Russia in both the short and long term. However, recent concessions to Russia for good relations in the short term may have potentially harmful repercussions for Armenia in the future. These concessions have in part resulted in the Russian dominance in the economic sector, over-dependence on Russia for Armenia’s energy needs, and the perpetuation of Armenian submissiveness to Russian interests. Armenia should, therefore, maintain good relations with Russia while simultaneously securing long-term paths that focus on actual strategic partnership and not dependence. In short, Armenia should return to a foreign policy of complementarism, which was first enacted under the Republic of Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter-Petrossian. Complementarism stresses the importance of pursuing Armenia’s best interest through the adoption of balanced policies and through minimal involvement or identification within regional blocs. The leveraging of Armenia’s long-term interests for close relations with Russia is possibly best exemplified in the state of Armenia’s economy. Like many former Soviet republics, the collapse of entangled Soviet trading patterns and the legacy of its centrally-planned economy still have negative implications for Armenian industry and trade.

人口老化是全球趨勢，而此現象引起社會各界對退休保障的關注。此外，跨國勞工移動人數因全球化而急速上升。勞工跨國移動對於跨國界之退休保障帶來新的挑戰。作為社會的一份子，每人都應該享有社會保障的權利，但跨國移動勞工可能會面對與就業國本地勞工在社會保障上存在差別待遇之問題，甚至有機會同時失去家國及就業國的社會保障。勞工個人的流動量越大，對其退休保障所造成的影響就會越大。 會產生此類問題的原因是因為勞工跨國移動，但國家之間的退休保障制度卻沒有連接起來。此問題可以通過簽訂雙邊協議或多邊協議來解決。通過協議，就業國應提供外籍勞工與本地勞工平等待遇。協議亦可用於訂定移動勞工應該適用那一個國家的法規。同時亦可以解決投保年資中斷及分隔兩地、給付出口有設置限制等問題。雖然並非必須的，但協議可幫助協約國間之退休行政服務連結起來，為受益人帶來方便性。 保障移動勞工的權益不只單單是允許其參加退休保障制度，而且應該確保勞工受到與本地勞工同等之對待。通過訂定社會保障協議，勞工即使離國工作亦可以維持獲取退休保障之權利。社會保障可攜性，特別是退休保障，不止對勞工有利，對政府、對經濟發展亦是有益處的。 近年兩岸四地的經濟交流合作及勞工流動增加，四地之間的退休保障問題更值得關注。探討兩岸四地退休保障可攜性，可以幫助解決或至少減低四地間移動勞工之退休保障攜帶性損失。 / Aging population is a global phenomenon and this leads to the concern of social security issues. Besides, the number of international mobile workers is increasing rapidly due to globalization. International labour mobility is creating new challenges for cross national social security. Being a member of the society, everyone should have the right to social security, but international mobile workers may face the problem of having a deduction on pension benefits comparing with native workers, or even, lack of social security protection from both home and host countries. And the larger the mobility, the greater the influences are towards pension benefits. These problems occur because of workers working abroad, but there is no connection between the social security systems between home and host countries. This can be solved by concluding bilateral agreements or multilateral agreements. Through social security agreements, the host countries should provide equality of treatment towards expatriates. Besides, agreements can also be used for the determination of the applicable legislation, as well as solving the problems of separation of insured years and restrictions on the export of benefits etc. Although it is not a must, agreements can also help in providing administrative assistance for beneficiaries. Ensuring the right to social security of mobile workers is not only allowing them to join social security schemes, but also guaranteeing them to have equality of treatment comparing with native workers. Social security agreements can help in maintaining the right to social security for mobile workers. Portability of social security, especially on pension issue, benefits not only mobiles workers, but also government and the economic development. The economic cooperation and labour mobility between Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Macau is increasing in recent years, and thus brings to the attention on the pension issue for mobile workers between places. Analyze on interregional pension portability can help in solving, or at least reducing the portability loss of mobile workers among these four places.

Essay I: Employment Security Agreements, which are elements of Swedish collective agreements, offer a unique opportunity to study very early job search counselling of displaced workers. These agreements provide individual job search assistance to workers who are dismissed due to redundancy, often as early as during the period of notice. Compared to traditional labor market policies, the assistance provided is earlier and more responsive to the needs of the individual worker. In this study, I investigate the effects of the individual counseling and job search assistance provided through the Employment Security Agreement for Swedish blue-collar workers on job finding and subsequent job quality. The empirical strategy is based on the rules of eligibility in a regression discontinuity framework. I estimate the effect for workers with short tenure, who are dismissed through mass-layoffs. My results do not suggest that the program has an effect on the probability of becoming unemployed, the duration of unemployment, or income. However, the results indicate that the program has a positive effect on the duration of the next job. Essay II: The well-known positive relationship between the unemployment benefit level and unemployment duration can be separated into two potential sources; a moral hazard effect, and a liquidity effect pertaining to the increased ability to smooth consumption. The latter is a socially optimal response due to credit and insurance market failures. These two effects are difficult to separate empirically, but the social optimality of an unemployment insurance policy can be evaluated by studying the effect of a non-distortionary lump-sum severance grant on unemployment durations. In this study, I evaluate the effects on unemployment duration and subsequent job quality of a lump-sum severance grant provided to displaced workers, by means of a Swedish collective agreement. I use a regression discontinuity design, based on the strict age requirement to be eligible for the grant. I find that the lump-sum grant has a positive effect on the probability of becoming unemployed and the length of the completed unemployment duration, but no effect on subsequent job quality. My analysis also indicates that spousal income is important for the consumption smoothing abilities of displaced workers, and that the grant may have a greater effect in times of more favorable labor market conditions. Essay III: Evidence from around the world suggest that individuals who are awarded disability benefits in some cases still have residual working capacity, while disability insurance systems typically involve strong disincentives for benefit recipients to work. Some countries have introduced policies to incentivize disability insurance recipients to use their residual working capacities on the labor market. One such policy is the continuous deduction program in Sweden, introduced in 2009. In this study, I investigate whether the financial incentives provided by this program induce disability insurance recipients to increase their labor supply or education level. Retroactively determined eligibility to the program with respect to time of benefit award provides a setting resembling a natural experiment, which could be used to estimate the effects of the program using a regression discontinuity design. However, a simultaneous regime change of disability insurance eligibility causes covariate differences between treated and controls, which I adjust for using a matching strategy. My results suggest that the financial incentives provided by the program have not had any effect on labor supply or educational attainment.