Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Asia and the Pacific, 2004

[Excerpt] This second issue in the current four-volume series of Social Security Programs Throughout the World reports on the countries of Asia and the Pacific. The combined findings of this series, which also includes volumes on Europe, Africa, and the Americas, are published at 6-month intervals over a 2-year period. Each volume highlights features of social security programs in the particular region

Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Europe, 2004

[Excerpt] This issue begins the second four-volume series of Social Security Programs Throughout the World. In this new format, each volume focuses on a specific region of the world: Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, and the Americas. The volumes are published at 6-month intervals over a 2-year period

Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Africa, 2007

[Excerpt] This third issue in the current four-volume series of Social Security Programs Throughout the World reports on the countries of Africa. The combined findings of this series, which also includes volumes on Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas, are published at 6-month intervals over a 2-year period. Each volume highlights features of social security programs in the particular region. The information contained in these volumes is crucial to our efforts, and those of researchers in other countries, to review different ways of approaching social security challenges that will enable us to adapt our social security systems to the evolving needs of individuals, households, and families. These efforts are particularly important as each nation faces major demographic changes, especially the increasing number of aged persons, as well as economic and fiscal issues

Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Asia and the Pacific, 2002

[Excerpt] This issue marks a significant change in Social Security Programs Throughout the World, which the Social Security Administration (SSA) first published 65 years ago. The report is now divided into a four-volume series and will be published in 6-month intervals. Each volume will be dedicated to one of four geographic regions: Europe, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, and the Americas

Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Africa, 2005

[Excerpt] This third issue in the current four-volume series of Social Security Programs Throughout the World reports on the countries of Africa. The combined findings of this series, which also includes volumes on Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas, are published at 6-month intervals over a 2-year period. Each volume highlights features of social security programs in the particular region. The information contained in these volumes is crucial to our efforts, and those of researchers in other countries, to review different ways of approaching social security challenges that will enable us to adapt our social security systems to the evolving needs of individuals, households, and families. These efforts are particularly important as each nation faces major demographic changes, especially the increasing number of aged persons, as well as economic and fiscal issues

Social Security Programs Throughout the World: Asia and the Pacific, 2006

[Excerpt] This second issue in the current four-volume series of Social Security Programs Throughout the World reports on the countries of Asia and the Pacific. The combined findings of this series, which also includes volumes on Europe, Africa, and the Americas, are published at 6-month intervals over a 2-year period. Each volume highlights features of social security programs in the particular region. This guide serves as an overview of programs in all regions. A few political jurisdictions have been excluded because they have no social security system or have issued no information regarding their social security legislation. In the absence of recent information, national programs reported in previous volumes may also be excluded. In this volume on Asia and the Pacific, the data reported are based on laws and regulations in force in July 2006 or on the last date for which information has been received.1 Information for each country on types of social security programs, types of mandatory systems for retirement income, contribution rates, and demographic and other statistics related to social security is shown in Tables 1­4 at the end of the guide. The country summaries show each system\u27s major features. Separate programs in the public sector and specialized funds for such groups as agricultural workers, collective farmers, or the self-employed have not been described in any detail. Benefit arrangements of private employers or individuals are not described in any detail, even though such arrangements may be mandatory in some countries or available as alternatives to statutory programs. The country summaries also do not refer to international social security agreements that may be in force between two or more countries. Those agreements may modify coverage, contributions, and benefit provisions of national laws summarized in the country write-ups. Since the summary format requires brevity, technical terms have been developed that are concise as well as comparable and are applied to all programs. The terminology may therefore differ from national concepts or usage

Social Security Programs Throughout the World, 1999

[Excerpt] This issue marks the seventh decade of publication for Social Security Programs Throughout the World. The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) continues to disseminate details about social security systems in countries world-wide bienially. The first edition, published in 1937, summarized the social security programs in 28 countries. This edition contains summaries of 172 different national systems

The dynamic analysis of continuous-time life-cycle savings growth models

Working with the framework of a continuous-time overlapping-generations model, this paper examines equilibrium growth paths (consistent with perfect foresight). In particular, we develop a methodology for characterizing the adjustment paths converging to new stationary states following exogenous shocks. The solution technique yields sequences of derivatives approximating the true dynamic paths and bounds for the errors of approximation. In practice, aggregating behavior over discrete-time intervals can save a great deal of effort -- considerably enhancing the set of models feasible for analysis; our error bounds enable us to aggregate without compromising our results to an unknown degree.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26597/1/0000138.pd

Technology-dependency among patients discharged from a children's hospital: a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Advances in medical technology may be increasing the population of children who are technology-dependent (TD). We assessed the proportion of children discharged from a children's hospital who are judged to be TD, and determined the most common devices and number of prescription medications at the time of discharge. METHODS: Chart review of 100 randomly selected patients from all services discharged from a children's hospital during the year 2000. Data were reviewed independently by 4 investigators who classified the cases as TD if the failure or withdrawal of the technology would likely have adverse health consequences sufficient to require hospitalization. Only those cases where 3 or 4 raters agreed were classified as TD. RESULTS: Among the 100 randomly sampled patients, the median age was 7 years (range: 1 day to 24 years old), 52% were male, 86% primarily spoke English, and 54% were privately insured. The median length of stay was 3 days (range: 1 to 103 days). No diagnosis accounted for more than 5% of cases. 41% were deemed to be technology dependent, with 20% dependent upon devices, 32% dependent upon medications, and 11% dependent upon both devices and medications. Devices at the time of discharge included gastrostomy and jejeunostomy tubes (10%), central venous catheters (7%), and tracheotomies (1%). The median number of prescription medications was 2 (range: 0–13), with 12% of cases having 5 or more medications. Home care services were planned for 7% of cases. CONCLUSION: Technology-dependency is common among children discharged from a children's hospital