International Handbook on Old-Age Insurance

(Hardback)

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Description

The essays in this international handbook analyze the impact of the economic, social, and cultural effects of ageing populations on government social insurance policies. They offer a perspective on how 20 countries have approached income maintenance programs for the elderly. Collectively, the contributors demonstrate how governments, non-governmental entities, communities, and families respond to changes in traditional income and social service support systems. They provide descriptions of existing programmes and look at the factors that gave rise to their distinctive characteristics.

Reviews

Different countries face some common problems because of the aging of the population and the tendency of many workers to leave the labor force at earlier ages. This collection reveals how 20 countries at various stages of development have addressed the problem of old age insurance. Discussions are quite brief (approximately 12 pages) and are written by different authorities for each country. The general format for the chapters is a brief history, program characteristics and special features, methods of funding, and principal areas of concern. This is not a work on the economics of demographic change as is James H. Schulz, et al., Economics of Population Aging (1991); nor is it a detailed discussion of the income support system as is Social Security's Looming Surpluses, ed. by Carolyn L. Weaver (CH, Sep'91). What it does very well is compare programs between highly developed countries like the US and those of countries as diverse as Tanzania and Ghana. This book would be of interest to readers from any discipline concerned with social programs to assist the elderly.-Choice
This international handbook fills a vacuum in the literature, providing a cross-cultural perspective on the development of old-age insurance programs.-EDUCATIONAL GERONTOLOGY
"This international handbook fills a vacuum in the literature, providing a cross-cultural perspective on the development of old-age insurance programs."-EDUCATIONAL GERONTOLOGY
"Different countries face some common problems because of the aging of the population and the tendency of many workers to leave the labor force at earlier ages. This collection reveals how 20 countries at various stages of development have addressed the problem of old age insurance. Discussions are quite brief (approximately 12 pages) and are written by different authorities for each country. The general format for the chapters is a brief history, program characteristics and special features, methods of funding, and principal areas of concern. This is not a work on the economics of demographic change as is James H. Schulz, et al., Economics of Population Aging (1991); nor is it a detailed discussion of the income support system as is Social Security's Looming Surpluses, ed. by Carolyn L. Weaver (CH, Sep'91). What it does very well is compare programs between highly developed countries like the US and those of countries as diverse as Tanzania and Ghana. This book would be of interest to readers from any discipline concerned with social programs to assist the elderly."-Choice

Author Bio

MARTIN B. TRACY is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Iowa. He has authored Social Policies for the Elderly in the Third World (Greenwood Press, 1991), Retirement Age Practices in Ten Industrial Societies, and numerous articles. FRED PAMPEL is Professor of Sociology and Senior Research Associate at the Population Program at the University of Colorado. He is the co-author of Age, Class, Politics, and the Welfare State and Social Change and the Aged.