Venice Summer Institute 2012: Portability of Social Benefits: The Economics of a Critical Topic in Globalisation

The international portability of social benefits is an increasing concern for individuals and policy-makers. The concern reflects rising labour mobility as a key feature of globalisation, which adds to increasing labour mobility across firms, professions and sectors of industry. To the extent that mobility is welfare-enhancing, migration decisions of individuals should not be influenced by a lack of portability of benefits providing for old age, disability, health care, unemployment and other contingencies for which acquired rights have been established. Broader definitions of portability may be conceived of.
In the practical sphere, legal rules addressing the portability of social benefits exist through multilateral agreements (e.g., within the EU) or on a bilateral basis. International organisations are also engaged in discussing the situation of, and shaping the framework for, migrant workers. Thus far, however, the number of contributions in which economists investigate basic conceptual issues, the optimality of existing arrangements or alternative approaches in a rigorous analytical framework and with in-depth empirical research is limited. The conference is thus meant to stimulate further research and to create an opportunity for discussions of topics such as the following:

• objectives of portability and optimal design of portability rules,
• conceptual issues arising in different sub-fields, old-age provision and health care in particular,
• assessments of broad portability regimes and existing agreements,
• empirical work on the effects of portability, or a lack thereof.