Zwischen Barrierefreiheit, Aktivierung und Marktradikalismus: Der Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt durch die Invalidenversicherung

Es ist ein erklärtes Ziel der Invalidenversicherung, die Eingliederung in den Arbeitsmarkt anderen Lösungen vorzuziehen. Dementsprechend könnte man einen barrierefreien Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt für alle erwarten. Verglichen mit anderen westlichen Ländern haben in der Schweiz Menschen mit einer Behinderung aber nur wenig Rechte bezüglich Arbeitsmarktintegration. Die Verantwortung scheint einseitig auf die Betroffenen abgewälzt worden zu sein. Dies lässt sich mit der Geschichte der Invalidenversicherung sowie mit gegenwärtig dominanten Interpretationen ihrer Funktionsweise erklären. Die Klärung der Frage nach der Verantwortlichkeit für die Zugänglichkeit des Arbeitsmarktes kann auch für die Heil- und Sonderpädagogik hilfreich sein

Social Insurance System of Self Employed Persons in the Czech Republic in Comparison with Selected Countries of Europe

Diplomová práce se zabývá problematikou systému sociálního pojištění osob samostatně výdělečně činných v České republice v komparaci s vybranými zeměmi Evropy. Cílem diplomové práce je analyzovat a zhodnotit systém sociálního pojištění pro osobu samostatně výdělečně činnou ve vybraných státech a porovnat procentní zatížení osob samostatně výdělečně činných z daňových základů, neboť pojištění spadá v širším pojetí do daňové soustavy. Cílem je rovněž případně doporučit pro Českou republiku některou z výhod sociálního pojištění a zdravotního pojištění vybraných zemí. Teoretická část se zabývá systémem sociálního pojištění osoby samostatně výdělečně činné v České republice a systémem sociálního pojištění osoby samostatně výdělečné činné ve Slovenské republice a ve Švýcarské konfederaci. Praktická část se zabývá zhodnocením a porovnáním jednotlivých systémů sociálního pojištění osoby samostatně výdělečné činné, jak je charakterizována, jakých pojištění je účastna, jakou formou platí pojistné a v jaké výši a jaké dávky jsou jí poskytovány. Součástí kapitoly je také praktická aplikace výpočtu pojistného na příkladech.This master's thesis deals with an issue of a social insurance system of a self-employed persons in the Czech Republic in a comparison with selected countries of Europe.The aim of this master's thesis is to analyze and evaluate the system of the social insurance for the self-employed persons in selected countries and to compare a percentage burden of the self-employed persons based on the tax´s bases as the insurance falls broadly into a tax system. The aim is to eventually recommend the Czech Republic to some of benefits of the social insurance and the health insurance from selected countries. The theoretical part deals with the system of the social insurance for the self-employed person in the Czech Republic and the system of the social insurance for the self-employed person in the Slovak Republic and in the Swiss Confederation.The practical part includes the evaluation and the comparison of the individual social insurance schemes of the self-employed person, as it is characterized, what kind of the insurance is participated in, how it is paid and in what the amount and what benefits are provided to it. The part of the chapter is also the practical application of the calculation on the examples.117 - Katedra účetnictví a danídobř

Switzerland Report : Sustainable Governance in the Context of the COVID-19 Crisis

Switzerland was one of the first European countries to be affected by the coronavirus pandemic. As with other countries that were affected early, Switzerland took longer to respond than countries that were affected later (Kohler et al. 2020; Wenger et al. 2020), because there were no best practice examples to copy (Plümper and Neumayer 2020). Measured in terms of controlling the coronavirus incidence rate (average number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants), the country’s response to the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath (March – April 2020) was extraordinarily successful. However, its response to the second wave, which began in late August and reached its preliminary peak in November 2020, was significantly poorer. During the first wave, Switzerland pursued a strict, time-consistent lockdown policy. However, the country’s approach to the second wave was hesitant, less strict and less time-consistent, with various temporary, light lockdowns pursued. In particular, during the first wave, efficient and pragmatic economic policies were implemented, including a light-handed lending program managed by private banks and fully guaranteed for loan defaults by the federal government, while a generous short-time work compensation program and several à fonds perdu payments (hardship cases) were introduced by cantonal and federal governments. At the end of the period under review, Switzerland’s economic growth, government deficit and unemployment rates appeared to have been relatively unaffected. This was due to very favorable conditions at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, namely Switzerland’s highly competitive economy, booming and flexible labor market, efficient infrastructure, reliable public administration, and sound public finances. In addition, the government recently enacted an ordinance regulating lockdown measures within the framework of the Swiss Epidemics Act (EpA 2012). By international standards, democracy in Switzerland has functioned well, and few restrictions have been placed on civil liberties and rights. As a federal state with a weak federal government due to sovereignty residing mainly in the cantons, policy responses to the coronavirus crisis involved complex coordination between cantons, and between cantons and the federal level. Consequently, policymaking was prone to conflict, slow and idiosyncratic, while policy actors were incentivized to avoid blame for policy failures. Policymaking has been strongly path dependent. With the exception of the emergency law period (“exceptional situation”), which increased federal government powers over the cantons, federal economic policy has been coordinated with cantonal policies and worked to a large extent by matching funds. The need for negotiations and compromise in policy formulation resulted in a sluggish process that ultimately delivered relatively inconsistent policies. Corporatist coordination between the state and economic actors continued to be highly effectively. The major achievement was the introduction of a program that entitled struggling firms to request credit from private banks, which would be guaranteed in case of default by the federal government. This program was designed and implemented within a few days by representatives of five major banks together with the Federal Ministry of Finance, and demonstrates the extent of mutual trust and familiarity between the banks and the ministry as well as the country’s pragmatic heterodox economic ideology. Beyond corporatist cooperation, economic interest groups (in particular small- and medium-sized enterprises) were highly successful in achieving their goals, provided there was no opposition from other economic elites or liberal counterparts of industry in the political systems. For example, representatives of the hospitality industry successfully lobbied to remove lockdown restrictions on hotels and restaurants earlier than planned during the first wave (Sager and Mavrot, 2020). However, their demands for a rent reduction program to support hotels and restaurants during the lockdown failed, as the proposal provoked opposition from economic-liberal politicians and other interest groups (e.g., landlords). Path dependence characterized the likelihood of interest groups’ success. While well-organized producer interests (particularly associations of employers and firm owners) could carry the day, weakly organized groups and employees were much less successful. It was only in December 2020 that short-time work compensation for low-wage employees was increased, as requested by trade unions. Meanwhile, the demands of nursing personnel for better working conditions were rejected by parliament in the fall of 2020. Finally, during the coronavirus pandemic, tensions between expert scientific advice and political decision-making became pronounced. It took several weeks following the start of the coronavirus pandemic for the Federal Council to institutionalize a scientific task force, and when it was formed it was composed mainly of life scientists and economists (with sociologists, psychologists and political scientists poorly represented). Scientific advice has been treated as one among many inputs and some politicians – in particular from the right-populist Swiss People’s Party – have made it clear that they do not appreciate scientific input into political decision-making

Fiskalpolitik als antizyklisches Instrument? Eine Betrachtung der Schweiz

This paper examines the stabilizing effects of Swiss fiscal policy. First, we find that the federation adopted a countercyclical fiscal policy in approximately 60% of all periods observed. During recessions, fiscal policy was always countercyclical and therefore helped to stabilize the economy. In case of the cantons, fiscal policy was countercyclical in 55% of all recessions. In recent years, there has been a trend for both the federation and the cantons toward stronger stabilization. Second, the two stabilizing instruments of fiscal policy, automatic stabilizers and discretionary fiscal policy are compared with each other. Over the last 50 years, automatic stabilizers have been expanded continuously, particularly on the federal level. We find that the impulse of automatic stabilizers is about twice as large as the one of discretionary fiscal policy. Third, macroeconomic effects of Switzerland's fiscal policy during recessions are examined. Automatic stabilizers have been particularly effective in the cantons whereas the effects of discretionary fiscal policy on economic growth have tended to be weake

Financial Incentives and the Timing of Retirement: Evidence from Switzerland

We use reforms in the Swiss public retirement system to identify the responsiveness of retirement timing to financial incentives. A permanent reduction of retirement benefits by 3.4 percent induces more than 70 percent of females to postpone their retirement. The responsiveness of male workers, who undergo a different treatment, is lower.retirement insurance, incentives, social security, labor force exit, natural experiment, Switzerland

Swiss pension funds: funding ratio, discount rate, and asset allocation

The funding ratio is a financial indicator to measure the viability of pension funds. The paper analyzes how Swiss occupational pension funds' technical discount rate and asset allocation are related to the funding ratio. The paper shows that funds with weaker funding ratios apply higher rates to discount future pension liabilities what points toward euphemistic discounting. Further, weaker funded pension funds invest less in equities-with the exception of pension funds below the regulatory minimum threshold. The latter invest more in equities than funds above the threshold, which points to gambling for resurrection. The findings question the funding ratio as a transparent measure for pensions' sustainability and unfold the regulatory environment's disincentives

Die Auswirkungen bedarfsabhängiger Leistungen: Ergänzungsleistungen in der Schweiz

As in many other countries, means tested benefits constitute an important part of the Swiss old age security system and disability insurance. In contrast to universal benefits, such targeted transfers are intended to only support the ones in need and thereby lead to low level of public expenses. However, individuals face strong incentives at various stages in life to adapt their behavior in order to become eligible. Using the Swiss Erg¨anzungsleistungen as an example, we argue that means tested benefits increase the incentive to apply for disability benefits, raise the attractiveness of early retirement, and induce individuals to favor a lump sum payment over an annuity. Moreover, they decrease the incentive to purchase private long-term care insuranc

The politics of trade-offs: studying the dynamics of welfare state reform with conjoint experiments

Welfare state reform in times of austerity is notoriously difficult because most citizens oppose retrenchment of social benefits. Governments, thus, tend to combine cutbacks with selective benefit expansions, thereby creating trade-offs: to secure new advantages, citizens must accept painful cutbacks. Prior research has been unable to assess the effectiveness of compensating components in restrictive welfare reforms. We provide novel evidence on feasible reform strategies by applying conjoint survey analysis to a highly realistic direct democratic setting of multidimensional welfare state reform. Drawing on an original survey of Swiss citizens’ attitudes toward comprehensive pension reform, we empirically demonstrate that built-in trade-offs strongly enhance the prospects of restrictive welfare reforms. Our findings indicate that agency matters: governments and policy makers can and must grant the right compensations to the relevant opposition groups to overcome institutional inertia