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Veto Power and Wealth: Analysis of the Development of the Swiss Old Age Security

Journal of Economics Library

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Title Veto Power and Wealth: Analysis of the Development of the Swiss Old Age Security
 
Creator ZENKER, Christina; Zayed University
 
Description Switzerland was one of the last OECD-coun­tries to introduce a program for old age security – the AHV. For many decades, expenditures both in absolute terms and as a portion of GDP remained low in OECD comparison. In the 1970ies however, expenditures exploded – within 10 years, the expenditures as a percentage of GDP doubled. This article explains this astonishing development by applying the veto player theory. Veto player theory is useful to determine changes in the policy stability. The higher the policy stability, the more difficult it is to move away from the political status quo. The lower the policy stability, the more pro­bable it is that reforms and changes in government programs can be achieved. This article shows that the policy stability was particularly high in the constitution phase (from 1890 to 1947) and the consolidation phase (from 1974 to the present) and low in the phase in between (from 1948 to 1973), when the foundation for the expansion was set.Keywords. Power and wealth, Development.JEL. H30, H40, H50.
 
Publisher Journal of Economics Library
 
Contributor —
 
Date 2015-06-18
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/JEL/article/view/289
10.1453/jel.v2i2.289
 
Source Journal of Economics Library; Vol 2, No 2 (2015): June; 79-92
2149-2379
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://www.kspjournals.org/index.php/JEL/article/view/289/446
 
Rights Copyright (c) 2015 Journal of Economics Library
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0