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Should We Extend the Role of Private Social Expenditure?

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Author Info
Mark Pearson
John P. Martin

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Abstract

  1. Some people make great claims about the advantages to be gained from greater reliance on the private sector for the provision of social protection. Many of the claims for great macroeconomic advantages do not stand up to scrutiny. However, there is some reason to hope that private provision might promote microeconomic efficiency and services which are more responsive to consumer preferences than those provided by a single monopoly public sector provider. Drawing on examples from recent OECD country experiences with private health insurance, care for children and the elderly, and private pension provision, three main conclusions can be drawn. First, opening provision to a diversity of providers has often promoted more choice and innovation. Second, however, efficiency gains have often been limited. This is due to a number of inter-related reasons: (a) Individualisation of packages of services is expensive. (b) In order to ensure adequate coverage of the ...


  1. Certains font grand cas de l’intérêt qu’il y aurait au plan macroéconomique à faire davantage appel au secteur privé pour assurer la protection sociale. Les arguments présentés dans ce sens ne tiennent souvent pas la route ; cependant, on peut penser que le recours au secteur privé permettrait peut-être une meilleure efficience microéconomique et une réponse plus adaptée aux choix des consommateurs que ce que peut offrir un prestataire public en situation de monopole. A partir de quelques expériences récentes de pays de l’OCDE en matière d’offre privée pour l’assurance maladie, la garde des enfants, les soins aux personnes âgées et la retraite, trois conclusions se dégagent. Premièrement, la diversification des prestataires a souvent permis un plus grand choix et plus d’innovation. Deuxièmement, cependant, les gains d’efficience ont souvent été limités, et ceci pour un certain nombre de raisons difficiles à dissocier : (a) l’individualisation du panier de prestations est ...

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Paper provided by OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs in its series OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers with number 23.

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Date of creation: 21 Mar 2005
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Handle: RePEc:oec:elsaab:23-en

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Boundaries of Public and Private Enterprise; Privatization; Contracting Out

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References listed on IDEAS
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.:
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  3. Pablo Antolín & Alain de Serres & Christine de la Maisonneuve, 2004. "Long-Term Budgetary Implications of Tax-Favoured Retirement Plans," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 393, OECD, Economics Department. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Jens Lundsgaard, 2002. "Competition and Efficiency in Publicly Funded Services," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 331, OECD, Economics Department. [Downloadable!]
  6. Francesca Colombo, 2001. "Towards More Choice in Social Protection?: Individual Choice of Insurer in Basic Mandatory Health Insurance in Switzerland," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 53, OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. [Downloadable!]
  7. Willem Adema & Marcel Einerhand, 1998. "The Growing Role of Private Social Benefits," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 32, OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. [Downloadable!]
  8. Thai Than Dang & Pablo Antolín & Howard Oxley, 2001. "Fiscal Implications of Ageing: Projections of Age-Related Spending," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 305, OECD, Economics Department. [Downloadable!]
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  11. David W. Kalisch & Tetsuya Aman & Libbie A. Buchele, 1998. "Social and Health Policies in OECD Countries: A Survey of Current Programmes and Recent Developments," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 33, OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. [Downloadable!]
  12. Willem Adema, 2001. "Net Social Expenditure: 2nd Edition," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 52, OECD, Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. [Downloadable!]
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Cited by:
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  1. Lindbeck, Assar, 2006. "The Welfare State -- Background, Achievements, Problems," Working Paper Series 662, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. [Downloadable!]
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