Ethics and Social Security Reform

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ethical considerations now play a crucial role in the debates surrounding social security and social security reform. Each of the contributors to this volume considers how value judgements enter into any analysis of social security reform. Contents: Ethical Concepts and Principles: Altruism, efficiency and justice: ethical challenges to the welfare state, Erik Schokkaert; The ethics and the normgiving: the example of rehabilitation, Lotta Westerh�ll; Crossing frontiers: migration and social security, Simon Roberts; Alternative measures of national poverty: perspectives and assessment, Robert H. Haveman and Melissa Mulikin; The measurement of absolute poverty, Jonathan Bradshaw. Ethics and Attitudes: Popularity and participation: social security reform in Australia, Peter Saunders and Maneerat Pinyopusarerk; Coping with risk: attitudes towards private unemployment insurance in Britain and Germany, Andreas Cebulla. Ethics and the Evaluation of Concrete Institutions: The pre-market phase: the transition from a state-controlled to a market-based social security system, Jasper C. Van Den Brink and Esther N. Bergsma; Public programs create private incentives and disincentives toward work, Barbara L. Wolfe; Social security, intergovernmental fiscal relations and efficiency: the case of the two systems of public assistance for the unemployed in Germany, Martin T.W. Rosenfeld; Skills, gender equality and the distributional impact of female labour market participation in the three worlds of welfare capitalism, Bea Cantillon, Joris Ghysels, Nine Mussche and Rudi Van Dam; What determines work resumption from long sickness spells? - an analysis of six countries, Edward Palmer and Ali Tasiran;Demographic change and partial funding: is the Swedish pension reform a role model for Germany?, Jagob/Sesselmeier; List of contributors.

SYNOPSIS

Twenty-one international scholars and researchers contribute to this volume examining ways in which value-judgments enter into any analysis of social security reform. Thirteen chapters are grouped into three sections—ethical concepts and principles, ethics and attitudes, and ethics and the evaluation of concrete institutions—and offer perspectives from a number of different countries. A sampling of topics includes migration and social security, the measurement of absolute poverty, attitudes towards private unemployment insurance in Britain and Germany, and the transition from a state-controlled to a market-based social security system. Academic but accessible to the general reader interested in social security reform.