Concepció Patxot

On the Optimality of PAYG Pension Systems in an Endogenous Fertility Setting

In order to help in designing an accurate pension reform, we determine the resource allocation in an endogenous fertility model that generates an endogenous demographic transition by means of distinguishing between female and male labor. We analyze the problem of the optimal solution and characterize the decentralization of the first best. We show that a pension policy linking pension benefits to the number of children acts as a corrective tax system able to restore both the optimal capital stock and the optimal rate of population growth as a single instrument. We also show that neither a Beveridgean pension scheme nor a Bismarckian one can decentralize the first best.

Modelling an entitlement to long-term care services for older people in Europe: projections for long-term care expenditure to 2050

As the numbers of older people rise in Europe, the importance of long-term care services in terms of numbers of users and expenditures can be expected to grow. This article examines the implications for expenditure in four countries of a national entitlement to long-tem care services for all older people, based on assessed dependency. It is based on a European Commission-funded cross-national study, which makes projections to 2050 of long-term care expenditure in Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The policy option investigated is based on the German long-term care insurance scheme, which embodies the principle of an entitlement on uniform national criteria to long-term care benefits. The research models this key principle of the German system in the other three participating countries, with respect to home care services. The study finds that, if all moderately/severely dependent older people receive an entitlement to formal (in-kind) home care, the impact on expenditure could be considerable, but would vary greatly between countries. The impact on long-term care expenditure is found to be the least in Germany, where there is already an entitlement to benefits; and the greatest in Spain, where reliance on informal care is widespread. This article discusses the policy implications of these results.

Beyond the Toledo agreement: the intergenerational impact of the Spanish Pension Reform

The paper examines the intergenerational impact of the Spanish public pension system after the 1997 Pension Reform Act. Within a Generational Accounting framework, we find that the new legal setting could leave future generations with liabilities as high as 176% of 1996 GDP. Hence, we analyse the impact of alternative reforms. Holding the pay-as-you-go setting, a further improvement to tax-benefit linkage in line with the Toledo Agreement proposals is shown to yield an intergenerationally more balanced outcome, than an increase in the retirement age or an expansion of public subsidies financed through indirect taxes. Finally, a move toward a partially funded pension system which restores the intergenerational balance is simulated.

The Design of the Long-Term Care System in Spain: Policy and Financial Constraints

The provision and financing of long-term care (LTC) in Spain has only recently become a policy concern. However, welfare policy reforms show the need to anticipate the effects of a transition from the traditional ‘family-based’ model of care (78 per cent of Spanish elders who are disabled are treated by their own families) to a modern ‘community-based’ model. This paper examines the current models of providing and funding long-term care in Spain and on the basis of the empirical evidence evaluates the prospects for the future organisation and funding of the system.

A projection model of the contributory pension expenditure of the spanish social security system: 2004-2050*

The need for long-term fiscal projections is self evident. Of these projections, pension expenditure is one of the most important since firstly it represents a large share of total expenditure, and secondly because of the positive correlation between this variable and demographic ageing. In this paper, we develop a model to project contributory pension expenditures in the Spanish Social Security System disaggregating the results by pension category, social security regime and sex. The most salient of the results obtained is the expected steady growth of total expenditure in contributory pensions. This would lie around 15% of GDP around 2045 compared to its initial level of barely 8% even though the baseline scenario incorporates a substantial recovery of employment and female participation rates. By pension categories, retirement pensions are those that determine the tendency of total expenditure evolution. Interesting conclusions can also be extracted from the analysis by sex. For instance, even accounting for an increase in female retirement pensions due to their higher participation, the corresponding increase in widow male pensions implies a higher total increase of the total number of contributory pensions accruing to men.

How intergenerational transfers finance the lifecycle deficit in Spain

In this chapter we present the estimates of the national transfers occurring among age groups in Spain in year 2000 using the NTA methodology proposed by Mason, Lee and others (2006). The life cycle deficit is positive –a surplus– for ages 27 to 57, while the rest of individuals become dependent, being the age reallocations of both age groups quite different. On the one hand, during childhood and youth, individual consumption is mainly financed by private transfers (69%) while public transfers only amount to a 32% being mainly in-kind transfers, through education and health systems. On the other hand, older people finance their lifecycle deficit mainly through asset-based reallocations (66%), followed by public transfers (41%, composed both of substantial cash transfers –retirement and survivor pensions– and in-kind health benefits). Interestingly, we find that the elderly are net payers of private transfers, implying that they are transferring money or housing services to the young members of their family. This surprising result could be explained by the high proportion of co resident elderly. This together with the fact that all individuals aged more than 16 pay and receive private transfers at the same time indicates that private support and hence intergenerational sharing tends to be mutual in Spain, implying that Spain is half-way between the northern European countries and the Latin-American countries. (1) Departamento de Teoria Economica, Universidad de Barcelona and Instituto de Estudios Fiscales (Spain) (2) Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte (Brazil) (3) Center on Economics and Demography of Aging, University of California, Berkeley (USA) (4) Departamento de Economia Aplicada, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain) This work received institutional support from the Spanish Science and Technology System (project nos. BEC2003-1831 and ECO2008-04997/ECON) and from the Catalan Government Science network (Project nos. SGR-2005-177 and SGR2005 -460 as well as XREPPXarxa de referencia en Economia i Politica Publiques).

Mètodes d'aprenentatge actiu en grups grans d'estudiants repetidors

//Abstract INTRODUCTION. Students who are required to repeat a subject at university are often not only low achieving, but also unmotivated and lacking in self-confidence. METHOD. In this study, we evaluate the effect of implementing a combination of three innovative techniques (flipped classroom, team-based learning and frequent testing) in groups of students who are repeating a subject. We assess the impact of the new teaching strategy on the final course grade through econometric analysis. Our sample consists of more than a thousand students who were repeating a subject in the Bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration or Economics of the University of Barcelona. RESULTS. We find that students benefit from guided autonomous study, continuous feedback and teamwork. The benefits are reflected primarily in higher final grades and an increase in the number of students who sat the final exam. The results hold up even after controlling for age, gender and average overall grade. DISCUSSION. Although the study was carried out with groups of students who were repeating a subject in economic theory, their success suggests that the new teaching approach could be successfully applied to other subject areas and among groups of students who are taking a subject for the first time.

Political viability of public pensions and education. An empirical application

ABSTRACT Public intergenerational transfers (IGTs) may emerge from the failure of private arrangements to provide optimal economic resources for the young and old. We investigate the political sustainability of the public system of IGTs by seeking to determine the outcome if the decision to reallocate economic resources per se was put to the vote. Exploiting the particular nature of the data from the National Transfer Accounts data in a political economy application in which generations cooperate under certain conditions, we show that most of the developed countries would vote in favour of a joint public education and pension system.