Institutional Design and Incentives for Migrant Workers to Participate in Social Insurance in China: Evidence From a Policy Experiment in Chengdu City

Rural-to-urban migration has increased rapidly in China since the early 1980s, with the number of migrants has reached 376 million by 2020. Despite this sharp trend and the significant contributions that migrants have made to urban development, the migrant workers have had very limited access to the social insurance that the majority of urban workers enjoy. Against the background of the social insurance system adjustment in Chengdu in 2011, this study uses a difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically test the impacts of changes in the social insurance policy contribution rates on the social insurance participation rates of migrant workers, using the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) data for 2009–2016. We find that the social insurance participation rate of migrant workers was significantly reduced after they were incorporated into the urban worker insurance system. There was no significant change in the wages of migrant workers, but the working hours were increased and their consumption level decreased. In other words, simply changing the social insurance model of migrant workers from “comprehensive social insurance” to “urban employee insurance” reduces the incentives for migrant workers to participate in insurance and harms the overall welfare of migrant workers. Our study indicates that the design of the social security policy is an important reason for the lower participation rate of migrants. It is necessary to solve the problem of insufficient incentives through the targeted social security policies; primarily, the formulation of a social security policy contribution rate suitable for the migrants, and the establishment of a comprehensive social security policy and the gradual integration of the social security system.

Social Provision of Disabled People in Welfare States: the Scope of Social Benefits and Anti-Crisis Regulation. Part 1

The article consists of two separate publications (Part 1 and Part 2) and analyses social security policy towards people with disability at working age in developed welfare states (social-democratic, conservative-corporatist and neoliberal regimes). Part 1 considers various approaches to reformation of state disability assistance aimed at overcoming “dependency culture” and increasing personal responsibility for wellbeing. The analysis is conveyed on the basis of international research as well as statistical data of the EU and OECD for the past 30 years. The article discusses the reasons for the growing assistance demand, the grounds for tightening the requirements for selection standards as well as the approaches to evaluation of disability. Institutional schemes of social welfare and participation conditions are accounted for. The author analyses the approaches to reducing poverty and inequality: redistribution of state expenditures within disability programmes and alternative support schemes offering people with disabilities a wide scope of social benefits based on research data and individual evaluation of health condition.

Social Security Policy in Response to the Pandemic COVID-19: A Case Study from Vietnam

On the international scale of measurement, Vietnam stands out as a country that has successfully accomplished the objectives of minimizing the spread of COVID-19. These objectives have been achieved through several factors, including the Government’s commitment, excellent success of the health service, and the “wholeheartedness” of the armed forces, especially the social consensus, which is clearly reflected in the decisions and policies made. Among those crucial decisions, the stable social security system has been the key priority of the government of Vietnam because it provides a strong foundation for the disadvantaged, who are not expected to overcome the pandemic based on their low-level “resistance.” The article aims at illustrating Vietnam’s social security interventions and strategies when faced the global COVID-19 pandemic and it also draws some experience that need to be referenced in implementing Social Security Society witnessed from Vietnamese reality.

Institutional Design and Incentives for Migrant Workers to Participate in Social Insurance in China: Evidence from a Policy Experiment in Chengdu City

Background: Rural-to-urban migration has increased rapidly in China since the early 1980s, with the number of migrants reaching 376 million in 2020 (National Bureau of Statistics [NBS], 2020). Despite this sharp trend and the significant contributions that the migrants have made to urban development, migrant workers have had very limited access to the social insurance that the majority of urban workers have enjoyed. Methods: Based on the background of the social insurance system adjustment in Chengdu in 2011, we establish a difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically test the impacts of change in social insurance policy contribution rates on migrant workers' social insurance participation rates, using the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) data from 2009-2016.Results: The social insurance participation rate of migrant workers was significantly reduced after they are incorporated into the urban worker insurance system. Meanwhile, there is no significant change in the wages of migrant workers, but the working hours became longer and the consumption level turned lower. That is to say, simply changing the social insurance model of migrant workers from "comprehensive social insurance" to "urban employee insurance" reduces the incentives for migrant workers to participate in the insurance and harm the overall welfares of migrant workers.Conclusion: The design of the social security policy is an important reason for lower participation rate of migrants. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the problem of insufficient incentives through targeted social security policies. Specifically, the first is to formulate a social security policy contribution rate suitable for the migrants. The second is to establish a comprehensive social security policy and gradually integrate the social security system.

Some Aspects of The Social Security System in The Republic of North Macedonia During Coronavirus Pandemic

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has lead North Macedonia into a serious social and economic crisis. The paper discusses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the formulation of the national social security policy and legal framework, in line with international standards based on human rights treaties. Crucial social security measures in the country particularly give the pressure on health protection, unemployment, family and child support. The evaluation will focus on the adopted and new policy measures for social security. An important question is does the North Macedonian social security system is well established to protect workers from social risks during a pandemic. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some workers who lost jobs might rely on unemployment compensation. So, the focus of this paper is on the challenges of the social security system from large-scale disruptions such as COVID-19. The paper ends with a summary of the main policy measures and an outlook where further research is needed. It concludes that during and after the pandemic the social security policy will be more important than ever.

The Household Benefit Cap: understanding the restriction of benefit income in Britain

Britain’s Household Benefit Cap restricts the amount of benefit income unemployed households can receive. In this article, it is examined using material held at the UK’s National Archives recording debates about a proposal to introduce a similar policy – a benefit limit – in the first Thatcher Conservative government elected in 1979. It was rejected, but the Household Benefit Cap was introduced three decades later. The article locates debates about, and the practice of restricting benefit income, in perennial social security concerns with the financial incentive to do waged work. The article argues that while there are material differences that help explain the different policy outcomes in 1980 and 2010, they can primarily be explained by changing ideas about the roles of social security policy, including the development of the ‘incentive paradigm’ concerned with manipulating behaviour; a loss of concern with the hardship that would come with the introduction of a benefit restriction and a view that institutions other than the state are better placed to address poverty and buttress work incentives.