Alternatives For Welfare Policy: Coping With Internationalis

Description: Demographic change and increasingly international markets are putting severe pressure on developed welfare states in the OECD countries. The contributors to this book assess the magnitude of these challenges and discuss in depth, and in concrete terms, what policy options are open to meet them. Looking at public service production, social insurance, tax policy and debt policy, they examine the main costs and benefits associated with an extensive welfare state and ask whether the same objectives can be reached with a welfare regime that is less costly. They also discuss whether the organization of the welfare state is capable of meeting future challenges facing a changing society. This rigorous analysis draws on empirical material from OECD countries with a focus on the Scandinavian countries. Table of Contents: List of contributors; Preface; 1. Introduction Torben M. Andersen and Per Molander; 2. International integration and the welfare state Torben M. Andersen; 3. The changing age structure and the public sector Thomas Lindh; 4. Emigration from the Scandinavian welfare states Peder J. Pedersen, Marianne Roed and Lena Schroder; 5. Productivity and costs in public production of services Jorn Rattso; 6. Use of fees in the provision of public services in OECD countries Carl Emmerson and Howard Reed; 7. Privatisation of social insurance with reference to Sweden Lars Soderstrom and Klas Rikner; 8. Occupational welfare Ann-Charlotte Stahlberg; 9. Pathways to retirement and retirement incentives in Sweden Marten Palme and Ingemar Svensson; 10. Social insurance and redistribution Pierre Pestieau; 11. Assessing the effect of introducing welfare accounts in Sweden Stefan Folster, Robert Gidehag, Mike Orszag and Dennis J. Snower; 12. Taxation in a global economy Bernd Huber and Erik Norrman; 13. Taxation and education investment in the tertiary sector Fredrik Andersson and Kai A. Konrad; 14. Debt strategies for Sweden and Europe Martin Floden; 15. Policy options for reforming the welfare state Torben M. Andersen and Per Molander; Index. Author Biography: Torben M. Andersen is Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Per Molander has worked at the Swedish Ministry of Finance and is currently a Private Consultant at MapsGroup. He is author of the book Turning Sweden Around (with A. Lindbeck et al.) 1994.