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The birth and growth of the social-insurance state : explaining old-age and medical insurance across countries

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Author Info
David M. Cutler
Richard Johnson

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Abstract

We seek to explain why countries have adopted national Old-Age Insurance and Health Insurance programs. Theoretical work has posited several factors that could lead to this adoption: the strain from expanding capitalism; the need for political legitimacy; the desire to transfer to similar people; increased wealth; and the outcome of leviathan government. We relate the probability of a country’s creating social insurance to proxies for each of these theories. We find weak evidence that the probability of adopting a system declines with increases in wealth and with greater ethnic heterogeneity. Still, none of the theories is very strongly related to system adoption. We conclude that social insurance can be politically expedient for many different reasons.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in its series Research Working Paper with number RWP 01-13.

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Date of creation: 2001
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedkrw:rwp01-13

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Keywords: Economic history ; Insurance ; Insurance; Health ; Old age;

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  1. Jeffrey A. Miron & David N. Weil, 1997. "The Genesis and Evolution of Social Security," NBER Working Papers 5949, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Peltzman, Sam, 1980. "The Growth of Government," Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(2), pages 209-87, October.
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  3. Naohiro Yashiro & Takashi Oshio, 1999. "Social Security and Retirement in Japan," NBER Chapters, in: Social Security and Retirement around the World, pages 239-267 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  4. Easterly, William & Levine, Ross, 1997. "Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(4), pages 1203-50, November.
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  5. Cukierman, A. & Tommasi, M., 1997. "When Does It Take a Nixon to Go to China," Papers 30-97, Tel Aviv.
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  6. Willem Adema & Marcel Einerhand & Bengt Eklind & Jorgen Lotz & Mark Pearson, 1996. "Net Public Social Expenditure," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 19, OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. [Downloadable!]
  7. Alesina, Alberto & Baqir, Reza & Easterly, William, 1999. "Public goods and ethnic divisions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2108, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Roubini, Nouriel & Sachs, Jeffrey D., 1989. "Political and economic determinants of budget deficits in the industrial democracies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 903-933, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Alesina, Alberto & Tabellini, Guido, 1990. "A Positive Theory of Fiscal Deficits and Government Debt," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 57(3), pages 403-14, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Nouriel Roubini & Jeffrey Sachs, 1988. "Political and Economic Determinants of Budget Deficits in the IndustrialDemocracies," NBER Working Papers 2682, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Browning, Edgar K, 1975. "Why the Social Insurance Budget Is Too Large in a Democracy," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 373-88, September.
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Rizzo, Giuseppe, 2009. "Fertility and pension systems," MPRA Paper 12998, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz & Paola Profeta, 2007. "The Redistributive Design of Social Security Systems," Working Papers 2007-07, FEDEA. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Perotti, Enrico C & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2007. "The Political Origin of Pension Funding," CEPR Discussion Papers 6100, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz & Paola Profeta, . "What Social Security: Beveridgean or Bismarckian?," Working Papers 2003-16, FEDEA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. repec:bep:eapadv:v:4:y:2004:i:1:p:1067-1067 is not listed on IDEAS
  6. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2002. "Social Security and Democracy," Economics Working Papers 621, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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