Abstract
Social security — which will be taken here in its wide, European sense, not only encompassing public pension schemes, but also other income transfers, such as to unemployed, sick and disabled persons and to widows and orphans — nowadays figures large among government outlays, after its continuous and fast expansion over especially the past two decades; see, e. g., Saunders and Klau (1985), and table 0.1. Accordingly, social security is receiving increasing attention in the economic profession. Recent discussions have focused on the effects of social security on capital accumulation and on its ability to achieve a more desirable distribution of income. In these studies social security programs are typically treated as exogenously determined. Little attention has hitherto been paid to the explanation of social security policies.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1989 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
van Velthoven, B.C.J. (1989). Towards A Politico-Economic Theory of Social Security. In: The Endogenization of Government Behaviour in Macroeconomic Models. Studies in Contemporary Economics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74591-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74591-1_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-50925-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-74591-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive