Willem Adema

Net Public Social Expenditure

The OECD Social Expenditure data base (SOCX) allows the monitoring of trends in aggregate social expenditure and changes in its composition. But aggregate social expenditure may sometimes fail to reflect the true ‘effort’ of a country in providing social support. Account needs to be taken of the effects of tax systems and transfers which, although mandatory, are not paid by government.In order to get from a “gross” to a “net” concept of social expenditure various adjustments to raw data are needed. These adjustments concern: methods of benefit payment (“net” or “gross” of tax); the varying extent with which governments use fiscal instruments rather than cash transfers to pursue social policy goals; and the different degree to which government requires other economic agents to provide social expenditures. The analysis also addresses the automatic budget effects related to the stage of the economic cycle.This analysis is a first attempt to capture in a comprehensive manner the effect ... La base de donnees de l’OCDE sur les depenses sociales (SOCX) permet d’observer l’evolution de l’ensemble des depenses sociales ainsi que les modifications survenues dans leur composition. Mais ces depenses dans leur ensemble peuvent parfois ne pas refleter l’effort veritable qu’un pays fournit pour apporter une aide sociale. Il faut tenir compte des effets du systeme fiscal et des transferts qui, bien qu’ils soient obligatoires, ne sont pas payes par le gouvernement.Afin de passer d’un concept ‘brut” de depenses sociales a un concept “net”, divers ajustements sur les donnees brutes sont necessaires. Ces ajustements concernent : les methodes de paiement des prestations (“nettes” ou “brutes” d’impot); l’importance avec laquelle les gouvernements utilisent les instruments financiers plutot que les transferts en especes pour accomplir les objectifs de la politique sociale; et jusqu’a quel point le gouvernement a besoin d’autres agents economiques pour qu’ils fournissent des depenses ...

The Growing Role of Private Social Benefits

This paper contains a first analysis of trends in private social benefits within a comparative framework. There is growing interest in the role of the private sector in the provision of social support in the light of concerns about the high level of public social spending. However, up to now, methodological and measurement problems have hampered the collection of cross-country data on private social benefits.The paper develops an appropriate methodological framework for treating this issue. It presents data on private social benefits for six countries for which such data are currently available: Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.Information on trends in public and private social expenditure is drawn together and the pape discusses in more detail spending patterns in two social policy areas where private provision plays an important role: pensions and health.Finally, the impact of the tax system is analysed, and for one year ... Cette etude fournit une premiere analyse des tendances de depense sociale a caractere prive dans un cadre comparatif. Il existe un interet grandissant pour le role du secteur prive dans la fourniture d’un soutien social compte tenu du niveau eleve des depenses sociales publiques. Toutefois, jusqu’a present les problemes de mesure et de methodologie ont gene la collecte des donnees internationales sur les depenses sociales privees.Ce document presente un cadre methodologique approprie pour traiter ce sujet. Il donne des donnees sur les prestations sociales privees pour six pays pour lesquels de telles donnees sont actuellement disponibles : Allemagne, Danemark, Etats-Unis, Pays-Bas, Royaume-Uni, et Suede.Ce document fournit des informations sur les tendances des depenses sociales privees et publiques. Il permet en outre d’examiner en detail les typologies de depenses dans les deux domaines ou la prestation privee joue un role important : pensions et sante.Enfin, l’incidence du systeme ...

Social Assistance Policy Development and the Provision of a Decent Level of Income in Selected OECD Countries

The paper starts with a brief look at social expenditure patterns and the importance of different social policy areas, in particular the role of social assistance policy within social protection systems. It then looks at the objectives of social assistance policy and considers payment-rates in terms of adequacy, financial incentives to work, addressing issues as budget standards, indexation methods and the policy approach towards specific client groups. Also, the study briefly highlights Chinese public expenditure issues more generally and presents some key indicators on the dynamics of ageing populations which will have consequences for future social expenditure trends in China.

What Works Best in Reducing Child Poverty

Child poverty is firmly on the policy agenda in many OECD countries. One of the main issues in the debate is the appropriate balance between the so-called “benefits strategy” (increasing the adequacy of benefits for low-income families with children) and the so-called “work strategy” (promoting policies to increase employment among poor families). The need to choose between these two apparent alternatives is sometimes seen as a consequence of an unavoidable trade-off between adequacy of benefits, work incentives and the costs of assistance... La pauvrete des enfants figure aujourd’hui sans aucun doute a l’agenda politique de plusieurs pays de l’OCDE. Une des problematiques dans le debat sur la pauvrete des enfants est de trouver le juste equilibre entre la « strategie des prestations » (qui consiste a augmenter convenablement les prestations pour les familles a bas revenus avec enfants) et la « strategie du travail » (qui consiste a encourager les politiques visant a augmenter l’emploi chez les familles pauvres). Le besoin de choisir entre ces deux alternatives est parfois percu comme etant la consequence d’une inevitable incompatibilite entre adequation des prestations, incitations au travail et couts de l’aide...

How much do OECD countries spend on social protection and how redistributive are their tax/benefit systems?

The global economic crisis has reignited interest in social policy and public spending on different types of social benefits. Public social spending-to-GDP ratios are often used to consider the magnitude of welfare systems in international perspective, but such comparisons alone give an incomplete picture of social effort across countries. This article looks at these different factors, before briefly considering the redistributive nature of tax/benefit systems in different member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The article also considers trends in social spending and compares spending in the late 2000s with the early 1990s when the previous economic crisis played out. The article ends by illustrating the profound effect the recent global economic crisis had on social spending trends across OECD countries.

Combating Child Poverty in Oecd Countries: Is Work the Answer?

Child poverty is on the policy agenda in all OECD countries. One of the main issues in the debate about child poverty is the appropriate balance between the “tax and benefits strategy” (increasing the adequacy of benefits for low income families with children) and the “work strategy” (promoting policies to increase employment among poor families). This article assesses the extent to which child poverty is associated with the work status of parents. It is found that child poverty rates are significantly higher for jobless families than for families with at least one parent in employment, and are significantly higher in single earner families than in two-earner families. The analysis finds, however, that in most OECD countries only a minority of poor families with children are jobless. Nevertheless, jobless families are nearly everywhere the most disadvantaged among the poor, and all countries with very low child poverty rates (less than 5%) have low levels of family joblessness. The article assesses the extent to which child poverty can be reduced by policies which successfully promote higher parental employment, identifying wide variations across countries in the effectiveness of different policy approaches.

Recent changes in family outcomes and policies in OECD countries: the impact of the economic crisis

Following decades of progress in prosperity, female employment participation and early childhood education and care policies, the recent economic crisis which began in 2007/2008 has had a negative impact on many aspects of family and child well-being in many OECD countries. Although effects vary across countries, the growth in female employment stalled, as did the rebound in fertility rates, divorce rates went up, while child income poverty increased further. The economic crisis also affected family policy. In many countries, income support policies initially expanded but after the onset of the crisis cutbacks to government spending were often made in view of budgetary pressures. In many countries, financial supports for families are less generous now than they were prior to the crisis. By comparison, parental leave arrangements and childcare supports systems have remained largely unscathed in most OECD countries with some countries actually expanding childcare supports despite the limitations to fiscal space. This paper highlights the changes in important family outcomes and related policies that occurred in OECD countries following the onset of the economic crisis, and demonstrates how countries most affected by the crisis faced significantly worse outcomes for families and children.

The OECD Gender Initiative

1. At the High Level Gender Forum of December 2012 (http://www.oecd.org/gender/forum2012.htm), Mr Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), summarized the importance of gender issues on the policy agenda as follows: ‘Gender equality is an imperative, not an option. Closing the gender gap must be a central part of any strategy to create more sustainable and inclusive economies and societies . . .’ 2. Both the human rights and economic arguments for gender equality inspired the launch of the OECD Gender Initiative in 2010. Building on OECD areas of expertise, the initiative examined existing barriers in gender equality in education, employment, and entrepreneurship – three key dimensions of economic and social opportunities – with the aim to strengthen the evidence base, improve policies, and promote gender equality in the economies of OECD, Key Partners (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and South Africa), and other non-OECD countries. The project received strong backing and financial contributions from the European Commission and the United States; then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham-Clinton provided political support as she chaired the 2011 Meeting of the OECD Council celebrating its 50th Anniversary (OECD, 2011b). 3. Gender equality includes many political, educational, socioeconomic, and cultural dimensions which need to be addressed together in order to tackle gender gaps. Hence, the OECD Gender Initiative followed a horizontal, whole-of-government approach, involving staff in 10 different OECD directorates: the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and Local Development (CFE); the Development Centre (DEV); the Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD); the Directorate for Education (EDU); the Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs (DAF); the Directorate for Science, Technology, and Industry (STI); the Public Affairs and Communications Directorate (PAC); the Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development (GOV); and the Statistics Directorate (STD).