Policy Debates as Dynamic Networks


Book Description

Policy debates between political actors can facilitate, strain, or change the direction of future policy-making. However, existing measurement approaches do not tap the full potential of discursive-institutionalist explanations of policy outcomes. Based on social network analysis of political discourse, this book develops a formal methodology for the dynamic analysis of political discourse using text data. As a showcase, the German politics of old-age security in the 1990s are analyzed in this book in detail. The literature offers several ideational explanations for the 2001 Riester reform, a major policy innovation that breaks with previous incrementalist descriptions of pension policy-making. This book is an attempt to overcome the methodological limitations of policy network analysis and operationalize the relational elements hidden in political debates"




Debating Pensions


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Pensions in the Public Sector


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From the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School, this book explores the diversity of governmental pension plans and investigates how these financial institutions must change in years to come.




State and Local Pensions


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In the wake of the financial crisis and Great Recession, the health of state and local pension plans has emerged as a front burner policy issue. Elected officials, academic experts, and the media alike have pointed to funding shortfalls with alarm, expressing concern that pension promises are unsustainable or will squeeze out other pressing government priorities. A few local governments have even filed for bankruptcy, with pensions cited as a major cause. Alicia H. Munnell draws on both her practical experience and her research to provide a broad perspective on the challenge of state and local pensions. She shows that the story is big and complicated and cannot be viewed through a narrow prism such as accounting methods or the role of unions. By examining the diversity of the public plan universe, Munnell debunks the notion that all plans are in trouble. In fact, she finds that while a few plans are basket cases, many are functioning reasonably well. Munnell's analysis concludes that the plans in serious trouble need a major overhaul. But even the relatively healthy plans face three challenges ahead: an excessive concentration of plan assets in equities; the risk that steep benefit cuts for new hires will harm workforce quality; and the constraints plans face in adjusting future benefits for current employees. Here, Munnell proposes solutions that preserve the main strengths of state and local pensions while promoting needed reforms.




A History of Public Sector Pensions in the United States


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From the Wharton School, offering a comprehensive assessment of the political and financial dimensions of public-sector pensions from the colonial period until the emergence of modern retirement plans in the twentieth century.




The Future of Pension Management


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A real-world look at the pension revolution underway The Future of Pension Management offers a progress report from the field, using actual case studies from around the world. In the mid-70s, Peter Drucker predicted that demographic dynamics would eventually turn pensions into a major societal issue; in 2007, author Keith Ambachsheer's book Pension Revolution laid out the ways in which Drucker's predictions had come to pass. This book provides a fresh look at the situation on the ground, and details the encouraging changes that have taken place in pension management concepts and practices. The challenges identified in 2007 are being addressed, and this report shows how design, management, and investment innovation have led to measurably better pension outcomes. Pensions have become an everyday news item, and people are rightly concerned about the security of their retirement in light of recent pension scandals and the global financial crisis. This book provides a note of encouragement, detailing the ways in which today's pensions are becoming more and more secure, and the new ideas and practices that are chipping away at the challenges. Learn how pension management practices are improving Examine the uptick in positive outcomes over recent years Discover why pension investing is turning toward the long-term Consider the challenges that remain and their possible solutions Drucker's vision of a needed pension revolution is unfolding in real time. Better pension designs, more effective pension governance, and more productive pension investing are mitigating many of the issues that threatened collapse. The Future of Pension Management provides a real-world update on the state of pensions today and a look forward to the changes we still need to make.




Reforming Pensions: Principles and Policy Choices


Book Description

Mandatory pensions are a worldwide phenomenon. However, with fixed contribution rates, monthly benefits, and retirement ages, pension systems are not consistent with three long-run trends: declining mortality, declining fertility, and earlier retirement. Many systems need reform. This book gives an extensive nontechnical explanation of the economics of pension design. The theoretical arguments have three elements: * Pension systems have multiple objectives--consumption smoothing, insurance, poverty relief, and redistribution. Good policy needs to bear them all in mind. * Good analysis should be framed in a second-best context-- simple economic models are a bad guide to policy design in a world with imperfect information and decision-making, incomplete markets and taxation. * Any choice of pension system has risk-sharing and distributional consequences, which the book recognizes explicitly. Barr and Diamond's analysis includes labor markets, capital markets, risk sharing, and gender and family, with comparison of PAYG and funded systems, recognizing that the suitable level of funding differs by country. Alongside the economic principles of good design, policy must also take account of a country's capacity to implement the system. Thus the theoretical analysis is complemented by discussion of implementation, and of experiences, both good and bad, in many countries, with particular attention to Chile and China.




Better Pensions for All


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The People's Pension


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Explores the potential benefits of a government-independent, democratized Social Security system to support dependents suffering from the reduction of other government benefits.




The Parliamentary Debates


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