ABSTRACT
In contrast there have been a number of macroeconometric investigations into the determination of equilibrium unemployment. These tell a different story from our micro results. For example simulations on several macroeconometric models of the UK economy indicate that changes in social security benefits affect the level of unemployment in the expected direction. The inherent conflict with social insurance lies in the fact that in times of high risk political pressures undermine the actuarial soundness of the social insurance fund. In practice social security benefits will be funded through general taxation. If society contained no absolute poverty there would most probably be no inherent need for social security. Major reviews and reforms of the social security system are understandably few and far between. In the long and involved history of the social security system several conflicts have been apparent. First, there has been the conflict concerning ‘less eligibility’.
