Citation

Discussion Paper Details

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Title: Assessing Welfare Accounts

Author(s): Stefan Fölster, Robert Gidehag, Mike Orszag and Dennis J. Snower

Publication Date: July 2002

Keyword(s): social insurance, taxes, welfare accounts, welfare reform and welfare state benefits

Programme Area(s): Labour Economics and Public Economics

Abstract: The paper examines the possible effects of introducing a large-scale welfare reform in Sweden, namely, the introduction of comprehensive welfare accounts. Under this policy, individuals make mandatory contributions to accounts, which they can top up with voluntary contributions. In return, individuals? welfare benefits are paid from their accounts. The paper uses a large panel of individual income data to examine how the adoption of universal welfare accounts may affect economic activity. We find that this policy could be designed so as to reduce social insurance expenditure considerably, improve the incentives to work and save, all with relatively small redistributive impact.

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Bibliographic Reference

Fölster, S, Gidehag, R, Orszag, M and Snower, D. 2002. 'Assessing Welfare Accounts'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=3479