Azad Singh Bali

Coordinating Healthcare and Pension Policies: An Exploratory Study

Rapid ageing of the population globally represents an unprecedented historical trend. As pension and healthcare costs are positively correlated with rising incomes, ageing, urbanization, and a shift from communicable to life-style diseases, managing these costs is a major challenge. There are many linkages between healthcare and pension arrangements—in terms of costs, exposure to risks, and as they jointly impact on crucial policy decisions. This paper discusses the rationale for coordination between various programs to better manage the cost of ageing. The current difficult macroeconomic environment, including fiscal stringency conditions, strengthens the case for such coordination.

Health care reforms in India: Getting it wrong:

India’s first health policy document in 1946 envisaged an ambitious health system comprising delivery of public health programs by the national governments and primary and secondary care by the state governments. Nearly seven decades later, neither of the ambitions have been realised. The delivery of public health programs is limited and uncoordinated, whilst primary and especially secondary care is of poor quality and unaffordable to the bulk of the population. This article assesses India’s health policy reforms and argues that at each juncture the policy instruments it utilised were inconsistent with the goals it was trying to achieve. The health care sector required more intervention than the central and state governments offered. The meagre funds allocated to public health programs and the unwillingness and inability of state governments to shoulder responsibility for primary and secondary care led to the dominance of the private sector in delivery, out-of-pocket financing, and fee-for-service payment to providers. Recent reforms have made some progress in addressing the lacunae but are handicapped by the pervasive dominance of the private sector which severely limits the choice of policy tools available to the government.

The challenges of state intervention in Singapore’s youth labour market

Purpose This paper assesses the efficacy of the policy measures to encourage young Singaporeans to pursue employment in the manufacturing sector while at the same time discouraging the sector’s traditional dependence on low cost foreign labour. In doing so, the paper sheds light on the challenges faced by small and medium enterprises (SME) as well as the less than optimum impact the policy rhetoric has had on redirecting the aspirations of young people away from tertiary qualifications attainment and towards vocational skills development. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on primary survey data of 222 manufacturing firms and in-depth interviews with 20 SME leaders in Singapore. Findings The paper argues that despite the Government’s policy efforts to encourage the employment of young Singaporeans in the manufacturing sector the impact has been negligible. Even with moves to increase the transaction costs of employing foreign workers, the findings indicate that SMEs have not changed their staffin...

Social Security Reform and Economic Development: The Case of India

Rapid ageing presents an unprecedented policy challenge for the provision of social security, especially for lower income countries. These challenges have been exacerbated by the current fragile global macro-economic environment on one hand, and domestic public policy constraints on the other. There is, however, increasing consensus among policymakers and stakeholders on the role of social safety nets in protecting the vulnerable against adverse shocks, and on the role of social security systems in fostering economic growth and development. The main functions of any retirement programme, usually referred to as a social security system, are to smooth out consumption over a lifetime, to ensure that retirement benefits last until death and are sufficient to avoid poverty in old age on a universal basis.

The Transition from Graduation to Work: Challenges and Strategies in Singapore

While historically Singapore has not experienced an employability problem, in recent years the reduced availability of foreign labour, and the political–economic imperative to increase domestic labour force participation has underscored issues surrounding work-readiness, skills and competencies and the transition from education to employment. On the demand-side, the government has responded to this by encouraging small- and medium-sized businesses (particularly in the manufacturing and construction sectors) to automate and mechanise to the extent possible through generous grants and subsidies for investing in technology. On the supply-side, the government has introduced reforms to upskill and expand the competencies of the domestic workforce. This chapter explores all these issues and presents several innovative case studies which illustrate how Singapore is addressing these issues.

New digital realities and old public service broadcasting models – the case of public access and participation in Singapore’s televisual landscape

Does public service broadcasting (PSB), with its 20th-century state-controlled and state-funded structure, still have a role to play in increasing access, public participation and a strong national media system in today’s globalising East Asia? This article, by taking Singapore as a case study, examines why and how traditional PSB media players have been forced to change their institutional and transactional responses to the ‘shocks’ of digitisation. In particular, it examines how the rise of Web 2.0, with its de-territorialised media services and social media, challenges PSB’s relevance as trends towards universal access, a greater participatory culture and active audiences render PSB content increasingly anachronistic.

Creating fiscal space to pay for pension expenditure in Asia

Abstract Many Asian countries are projected to age rapidly and will need to devote a larger proportion of their GDP to finance age-related expenditure including on pensions. Governments therefore will have to create additional fiscal space to fund such expenditure to sustain the credibility of existing pension promises. This paper presents an exploratory framework for creating fiscal space. The framework has three interrelated components: enhancing broad-based growth, improving revenue performance and better expenditure management. The paper distinguishes between funding of pensions, i.e. the share of GDP devoted to pensions, and financing of pensions, i.e. the different methods and instruments used to finance pensions. The focus of the paper is on funding, and the framework relies on both the income–expenditure flows and the government balance sheet to create fiscal space. Several examples of how potential fiscal space can be created in Asian economies of China, India and Indonesia to make their pension promises more credible are provided. The paper emphasises that the measures discussed for enhancing fiscal space should not be undertaken as a purely technical exercise, but should be combined with managing the political economy in a given context.

Organization and Reporting of Public Financial Accounts: Insights and Policy Implications from the Singapore Budget

This paper analyses the Singapore government budgets organization and reporting structure, and draws lessons and policy implications for improving public financial management practices. The paper finds that Singapores fiscal marksmanship record has been poor with consistent underestimates of revenue and overestimates of expenditure. Second, subtle divergences from international reporting standards limit the information available and constrain the budgets analytical usefulness in international comparisons. Third, current reporting conventions of the budget fail to provide an adequate representation of the governments fiscal position. Fourth, revised estimates of budgetary balances in line with international reporting standards show a considerable increase in the fiscal space available. The policy implications of these findings are discussed, as well as some reporting changes which can help improve the fiscal marksmanship record, increase public sector transparency and accountability, and facilitate better quality discourse among all stakeholders on public financial management.

What Do Government Budgets Tell Us? Organization and Reporting of Singapore's Budgetary Accounts

This paper examines the organization and reporting structure of Singapore’s public budgetary accounts and implications for public financial management. The budget’s current reporting scope and structure does not provide an adequate representation of the government’s fiscal position. Subtle divergences from international reporting standards limit the quantity and quality of information available in the budget and constrain its analytical usefulness. In turn, this also undermines the public sector’s transparency and accountability. The fiscal marksmanship record of the Singapore government’s budgetary estimates is assessed and its broader impacts are discussed. A revision of the reported budget balances is undertaken in line with international reporting standards and policy implications are illustrated by considering the provision of a uniform social pension. Recommendations for reporting reforms are proposed to improve the fiscal marksmanship record, increase transparency and accountability and enable the budget to facilitate better quality discourse among all stakeholders on public financial management.