Continuities in Providing for Old Age: Cross‐national and Cross‐cultural Comparisons
Drawing on a purposive sample of 25 interviews supplemented by secondary source material, this comparative study explores the options available to elderly immigrants in two quite similar countries to achieve social security in their old age. The focus is the culturally determined perspectives and practices of aging Italian-born and Indian-born immigrants in the context of public and private sector social welfare policies and provisions in Australia and Canada. Government transfers, occupational superannuation, tax-deductible personal savings, housing, and formal and informal supports are discussed. What is important to the sense of social security of the older people and how well-off or disadvantaged they seem to be are among the questions raised. The design affords an opportunity to test the complex combination of cross-national and cross-cultural comparison. In the certainty that the income deficiencies of today's elderly immigrants cannot be remedied easily or quickly enough to benefit those affected, intervention strategies can be aimed at expanding ethno-specific community supports and quality residential care; such a direction is supported by assessment of service availability in relation to estimates of aging among particular foreign-born immigrant groups. Suggestions are made for future research at the levels of theory and application. Copyright 1993 by The Policy Studies Organization.
A Global Perspective on Social Security Programs for the Aged
Abstract The social security programs that have become widely established in countries around the globe vary greatly in their design features. The difference among the programs invites questions regarding the relative strength of their designs. One hundred and sixty-four programs are assessed on three design dimensions: benefit eligibility, qualifying eligibility criteria, and benefit provision. The analysis shows that the best-designed old-age programs can be found in Western Europe and Australasia.
Should Social Security Benefits Be Means Tested?
Social-security retirement benefits distort the saving decisions of workers who are rational enough to save for their future. Since the implicit rate of return in an unfunded social-security program is less than the marginal product of capital, the resulting decline in saving causes a welfare loss. The present paper examines the conditions under which the welfare loss can be reduced by replacing the current universal social-security program with a means-tested program that pays benefits only to those individuals with little or no other retirement income or assets. Copyright 1987 by University of Chicago Press.