Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/19058 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 1594
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
The paper discusses a number of threats to the financial sustainability of social spending: increased internationalization of national economies, gradually higher relative costs of producing a number of human services, the ?graying? of the population, slower productivity growth in the private sector, low employment rates, and various types of disincentive effects related to the welfare state itself, including moral hazard. I argue that threats from gradually rising costs of providing human services and disincentive effects of welfare-state arrangements, in particular moral hazard and benefit dependency, are more difficult to deal with than the other threats. I also discuss the choice between ad hoc policy reforms and automatic adjustment mechanisms, delegated to administrative bodies, for dealing with these threats.
Subjects: 
sustainable fiscal policy
Baumol's disease
moral hazard
automatic adjustment mechanisms
JEL: 
H53
E62
H31
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.