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- Flood, Lennart, 1952, et al.
(författare)
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The income of the Swedish baby boomers
- 2006
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper study the income of Swedish households belonging to the baby boom generation, i.e those born in the 1940-50. An international comparison as well as an historical presentation of income patterns is given. However, the main purpose is to generate the future income of the baby boom generation as they get older. A major result is that the income standard of the young-old will become much higher than that of the very old. If our simulations bear the stamp of realism they suggest that we will see new and large poverty in Sweden among the very old in the future. The pension system contributes to this result. The "front loaded" design gives with its reduced wage indexation a higher income immediately after retirement but a much lower income at older age. From this perspective it is unfortunate that so much attention is given to the discussion of replacement rates. The replacement rate, although interesting in itself, completely miss the long run effect and just provides a comparison of incomes shortly after with incomes before retirement. If we instead focus on the relative income of older pensioners the results become quite different. Our results challenge the conception of a sustainable pension system. If the relative income of older pensioner's drops and at the same time expenditures for health and care increase, one might wonder how the old in our society will make both ends meet. If pensions become too small to meet "minimum standards" the requirement of financial sustainability of the pension system results in an increasing financial burden on other parts of the general social protection system.
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| 2. |
- Flood, Lennart, 1952, et al.
(författare)
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The Income of the Swedish Baby Boomers
- 2008
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Ingår i: Simulating an Ageing Population: A microsimulation approach applied to Sweden. - : Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., Howard House UK. - 9780444532534 ; , s. 249-292
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 3. |
- Mitrut, Andreea, 1977, et al.
(författare)
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Explaining Gift Behavior: Altruism or Social Norms? Theory and Evidence from Romania
- 2007
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper examines the motives behind inter-household gift transfers. A theoretical model is developed where, besides altruistic income redistribution, social norms (related to e.g. customs and traditions) motivate gift giving. We apply the model to Romania, a country where private gifts are very important, and find evidence for social norms being the main motive for gift giving. However, different norms determine gift transfers to poor and non-poor households. Moreover, we find no crowding-out effects from public pensions on private gifts.
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| 4. |
- Mitrut, Andreea, 1977
(författare)
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Four Essays on Interhousehold Transfers and Institutions in Post-Communist Romania
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of four essays related to different social and economic aspects in postcommunist Romania: Paper 1: In many developing and transitional countries, inter-household transfers in general and gifts in particular are sizable and very important. We use unique Romanian data that enables us to isolate pure gifts from other kinds of private transfers. We find that social norms are important for explaining the occurrence of gifts. However, we find different motives for gifts to the rich and the poor. Middle- and high-income households are part of reciprocal networks and receive more the higher their incomes and the more they give to others. The poor may be excluded from reciprocal networks, but they still receive, since there is a social duty to give. Paper 2: This paper investigates the determinants of formal group membership and informal network participation. We are particularly interested in the effect of heterogeneity, be it in terms of inequality or ethnicity. We find that inequality has a negative effect on formal group membership. Also, we find that inequality acts differently on poor and rich people: when inequality increases, it is the relatively poor persons who do not participate in groups and informal networks. Finally, we explore separately the determinants in different types of formal groups, and we find that in ethnically fragmented communities there is a lower participation in groups that involve close social interactions. Paper 3: Using Romanian survey data we investigate the determinants of individual life satisfaction, with an emphasis on the role of public and private transfers received. A possible concern is that these transfers are unlikely to be exogenous to life satisfaction. We use a recursive simultaneous equations model to account both for this potential problem and for the fact that public transfers are themselves endogenous in the private transfer equation. We find that public and private transfers received do not matter for overall life satisfaction, whereas we find a crowding out effect of private transfers by the public ones. However, we find that people are happier when giving private transfers. Paper 4: Tragic images of Romanian institutionalized children shocked Western audiences when broadcasted for the first time in the early 1990s, immediately after the fall of Ceausescu. We use a unique census that covers all institutionalized children in 1997, and find that institutionalized children are significantly less likely to be enrolled in school compared to their non-institutionalized same-age peers. We identify a special group of institutionalized children: the social orphans, i.e., children who have living parents but have no contact with them. We find that among healthy children, those in permanent institutional care, i.e. social orphans and orphans, are significantly less likely to be enrolled in school than noninstitutionalized children, while if we only look at children who suffer from a severe medical problem, we do not find significant differences between the two groups. That is probably because both groups are at high risk of poor education.
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