国际视野下救助、就业与福利依赖的关系——相关研究述评

A Literature Review on Assistance,Employment and Welfare Dependence from an International View

西方关于福利依赖及其对就业的负面影响的讨论从20世纪80年代起逐渐兴起,主流观点认为救助对于贫富差距的调节作用有限,且可能造成福利依赖,不利于就业甚至影响经济发展。受这种观点影响,近年来中国学术界也出现了关于低保这项救助制度"养懒汉"的担忧和对福利依赖的探讨。那么,在理论和实践层面,救助是否必然导致福利依赖?就业是否能避免福利依赖?中国的低保制度是否存在"养懒汉"问题?本文围绕上述问题,通过梳理与回顾现有的理论和国内外经验研究成果后发现,救助、就业和福利依赖的关系是较为复杂的,它并非通常认为的"救助会导致福利依赖,而就业能避免福利依赖"。另外,中国关于低保制度"养懒汉"的理论研究不够充分且观点存在分歧,经验研究较少且既有研究结论不支持低保救助诱导福利依赖的观点。

Discussion about welfare dependence and its negative influence on employment has become a popular topic since 1980 s in western countries. Some conventional wisdom contends that assistance plays a limited role in adjusting the gap between the rich and the poor,and it results in welfare dependence which does harm to employment. Under its influence,it has appeared worries about 'raising idler'and discussions on welfare dependence by Minimum Living Standard Guarantee System in China recently. On the aspects of theory and practice,whether assistance is bound to lead to welfare dependency? Whether employment is able to avoid welfare dependence and whether there is an issue of 'raising idler'by Minimum Living Standard Guarantee System in China? Around the above issues,after collecting and generalizing existing theoretical and empirical studies from an international view,such points should be discerned: the relationship among assistance,employment and welfare dependence is rather complicated. The common understanding of 'assistance leads to dependence and employment avoids dependence'is not always right. Besides,theoretical studies on'raising idler'by Minimum Living Standard Guarantee System in China are insufficient and the conclusions are different. Related empirical studies are rare and existed conclusions don't support the viewpoint that assistance results in welfare dependence.