Income Risk and the Benefits of Social Insurance: Evidence from Indonesia and the United States
Income Risk and the Benefits of Social Insurance: Evidence from Indonesia and the United States
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收入风险和社会保险的好处：来自印度尼西亚和美国的证据
DOI：
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发表时间：
2005
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Adam Looney
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Raj Chetty;Adam Looney
本文研究了发展中经济体相对于发达经济体社会安全网的福利后果。通过对印度尼西亚和美国家庭的追踪调查，我们发现当两国的个人失业时，食品消费量会下降约百分之十。这一发现表明，引入正式的社会保险计划对于减少印度尼西亚的消费波动收效甚微。然而，与美国家庭相比，印尼人使用减少人力资本投资等成本高昂的方法来平滑消费。因此，发展中国家社会保险的主要好处可能不是来自消费平滑本身，而是来自减少低效平滑方法的使用。
This paper examines the welfare consequences of social safety nets in developing economies relative to developed economies. Using panel surveys of households in Indonesia and the United States, we find that food consumption falls by approximately ten percent when individuals become unemployed in both countries. This finding suggests that introducing a formal social insurance program would have small benefits in terms of reducing consumption fluctuations in Indonesia. However, in contrast with households in the U.S., Indonesians use costly methods such as reducing human capital investment to smooth consumption. The primary benefit of social insurance in developing countries may therefore come not from consumption smoothing itself but from reducing the use of inefficient smoothing methods.