Construction and Impact of a Buffer Fund within the French PAYG Pension Scheme in a Demo-Economic Model

This paper provides some results from a model built in order to study the linked impacts of demography and economy on theFrench pension scheme. The demo-economic model which is used is a neo-cambridgian model with two types of agents in aclosed economy. Since it includes a very thin description of the French pension scheme, one of its main advantage is its lightness while its main originality is to permit a macroeconomic linkage whether with a endogenous growth function or with a exogenous one.

Intergenerational and economic impacts of a pension reserve fund : the French case.

Retirement; Public Policy; pension reform;

L’« alliance » religieuse, manière de socialiser le monde : Éclairages judéo-chrétiens sur le « mariage chamanique » sibérien

Prenant la suite de « Le sens de l’“alliance” religieuse, “mari” d’esprit, “femme” de dieu », paru dans Anthropologie et Sociétés (1998), cet article poursuit la réflexion engagée à partir de données sibériennes, sur les implications qu’entraîne le fait de qualifier d’alliance une relation avec des êtres spirituels. Son objectif est double.As a continuation of “About Positions in Religious Alliance Relationship: ‘Husband’ of a Spirit, ‘Wife’ of a God” published in Médiations chamaniques. Sexe et genre (1998, Anthropologie et Sociétés, 22), this paper furthers the research started on the base of Siberian data on the implications of calling “alliance” a relationship to spiritual beings. Its aim is twofold.En continuidad con el artículo «El sentido de ‘alianza’ religiosa, ‘marido’ de espíritu, ‘mujer’ de dios» publicado en AntropologieetSociétés (1998), el presente artículo prosigue la reflexión iniciada a partir de datos siberianos, sobre las implicaciones que supone el hecho de calificar de alianza una relación con entes espirituales. Su objetivo es doble. 1. Trata de mostrar la existencia de una liga entre modo de «alianza» religiosa y concepción de la relación con el mundo, cuya naturaleza resta a precisar. Tres casos tirados de las tradiciones judeocristianas ilustran tres variantes del modo de «alianza» inversos al del chamán siberiano definido como «marido de espíritu»: Yahvé es «esposo» de su pueblo, el Cristo de su Iglesia. Esas tradiciones imponen al «esposo» el deber de proteger el bien de la persona moral o ficticia que tiene el estatus de esposa. El argumento puede extenderse al deber de salvaguardar el bosque y los animales de caza que incumben al chamán siberiano. 2. Pretende justificar el análisis de la utilización religiosa de «alianza» como «metafórica» en el sentido definido por Lakoff y Johnson (1980), en razón de su valor explicativo y heurístico. Pone en evidencia el rol cognitivo de las inferencias que autoriza la estructuración metafórica del sistema conceptual subyacente. En efecto, el empleo de un término sociológico para calificar una relación que opera en el ámbito político o religioso funda la posibilidad de atribuir tal o tal propiedad de la relación sociológica a la relación homologa en ese otro ámbito

L’anthropologue et la dualité paradoxale du « croire » occidental

Un embarras certain entoure l’usage des termes croire et croyance dans les travaux des anthropologues. L’argument développé ici porte sur l’une des causes de cet embarras : le double sens qu’ont ces termes dans les langues occidentales sous l’influence du christianisme et qui semble caractéristique des religions universalistes. Ce double sens révèle un lien implicite entre objet de croyance et attitude de croyance, la primauté logique revenant à l’attitude et l’objet lui étant subordonné. Il peut en découler que l’objet acquière un statut de Vérité et que l’attitude devienne radicale et systématique, détachée de toute confrontation avec la réalité. L’exemple de la terminologie mongole illustre, par contraste, l’absence d’un tel lien — absence qui caractérise, semble-t-il, un grand nombre de cultures non-occidentales. En effet, les verbes mongols que l’on peut traduire par « croire » s’appliquent exclusivement à l’attitude de croyance, que les Mongols envisagent éventuellement dans son prolongement, c’est-à-dire l’action rituelle à laquelle elle donne lieu. L’absence de renvoi à des objets de croyance donnés apparaît comme une source de souplesse et d’innovation. Elle engendre une dynamique spéculative volontariste qui s’exprime surtout par les procédures divinatoires.The word “belief” and the verb “to believe” cause embarrassment to Western anthropologists for many reasons, particularly because they may refer either to contents (or objects) of beliefs or to the believer’s state of mind (or attitude). The argument of this paper focuses on this double meaning which has been developed in Western languages under Christian influence and which seems to be specific of World religions. This double meaning reveals an implicit association between an object and the attitude towards this object—the attitude prevailing logically and the object being subordinated. This association potentially gives the object the status of absolute Truth; it also makes the attitude radical and systematic, and precludes its being confronted with realities.By contrast, the Mongol terminology, as that of many non-Western cultures, does not imply such an association. The Mongol verbs that can be translated by “to believe” refer exclusively to the believer’s attitude, along with its continuation—that is, the ritual action it leads to. The fact that it does not refer to objects of belief seems to be a source of flexibility and innovation. It generates a speculative and voluntarist dynamics that is mainly expressed in divinatory procedures

L’anthropologue et la dualité paradoxale du « croire » occidental

Un embarras certain entoure l’usage des termes croire et croyance dans les travaux des anthropologues. L’argument développé ici porte sur l’une des causes de cet embarras : le double sens qu’ont ces termes dans les langues occidentales sous l’influence du christianisme et qui semble caractéristique des religions universalistes. Ce double sens révèle un lien implicite entre objet de croyance et attitude de croyance, la primauté logique revenant à l’attitude et l’objet lui étant subordonné. Il peut en découler que l’objet acquière un statut de Vérité et que l’attitude devienne radicale et systématique, détachée de toute confrontation avec la réalité. L’exemple de la terminologie mongole illustre, par contraste, l’absence d’un tel lien — absence qui caractérise, semble-t-il, un grand nombre de cultures non-occidentales. En effet, les verbes mongols que l’on peut traduire par « croire » s’appliquent exclusivement à l’attitude de croyance, que les Mongols envisagent éventuellement dans son prolongement, c’est-à-dire l’action rituelle à laquelle elle donne lieu. L’absence de renvoi à des objets de croyance donnés apparaît comme une source de souplesse et d’innovation. Elle engendre une dynamique spéculative volontariste qui s’exprime surtout par les procédures divinatoires.The word “belief” and the verb “to believe” cause embarrassment to Western anthropologists for many reasons, particularly because they may refer either to contents (or objects) of beliefs or to the believer’s state of mind (or attitude). The argument of this paper focuses on this double meaning which has been developed in Western languages under Christian influence and which seems to be specific of World religions. This double meaning reveals an implicit association between an object and the attitude towards this object—the attitude prevailing logically and the object being subordinated. This association potentially gives the object the status of absolute Truth; it also makes the attitude radical and systematic, and precludes its being confronted with realities.By contrast, the Mongol terminology, as that of many non-Western cultures, does not imply such an association. The Mongol verbs that can be translated by “to believe” refer exclusively to the believer’s attitude, along with its continuation—that is, the ritual action it leads to. The fact that it does not refer to objects of belief seems to be a source of flexibility and innovation. It generates a speculative and voluntarist dynamics that is mainly expressed in divinatory procedures

Construction and Impact of a Buffer Fund within the French PAYG Pension Scheme in a Demo-Economic Model

This paper provides some results from a model built in order to study the linked impacts of demography and economy on theFrench pension scheme. The demo-economic model which is used is a neo-cambridgian model with two types of agents in aclosed economy. Since it includes a very thin description of the French pension scheme, one of its main advantage is its lightness while its main originality is to permit a macroeconomic linkage whether with a endogenous growth function or with a exogenous one

L’« alliance » religieuse, manière de socialiser le monde : Éclairages judéo-chrétiens sur le « mariage chamanique » sibérien

Prenant la suite de « Le sens de l’“alliance” religieuse, “mari” d’esprit, “femme” de dieu », paru dans Anthropologie et Sociétés (1998), cet article poursuit la réflexion engagée à partir de données sibériennes, sur les implications qu’entraîne le fait de qualifier d’alliance une relation avec des êtres spirituels. Son objectif est double.As a continuation of “About Positions in Religious Alliance Relationship: ‘Husband’ of a Spirit, ‘Wife’ of a God” published in Médiations chamaniques. Sexe et genre (1998, Anthropologie et Sociétés, 22), this paper furthers the research started on the base of Siberian data on the implications of calling “alliance” a relationship to spiritual beings. Its aim is twofold.En continuidad con el artículo «El sentido de ‘alianza’ religiosa, ‘marido’ de espíritu, ‘mujer’ de dios» publicado en AntropologieetSociétés (1998), el presente artículo prosigue la reflexión iniciada a partir de datos siberianos, sobre las implicaciones que supone el hecho de calificar de alianza una relación con entes espirituales. Su objetivo es doble. 1. Trata de mostrar la existencia de una liga entre modo de «alianza» religiosa y concepción de la relación con el mundo, cuya naturaleza resta a precisar. Tres casos tirados de las tradiciones judeocristianas ilustran tres variantes del modo de «alianza» inversos al del chamán siberiano definido como «marido de espíritu»: Yahvé es «esposo» de su pueblo, el Cristo de su Iglesia. Esas tradiciones imponen al «esposo» el deber de proteger el bien de la persona moral o ficticia que tiene el estatus de esposa. El argumento puede extenderse al deber de salvaguardar el bosque y los animales de caza que incumben al chamán siberiano. 2. Pretende justificar el análisis de la utilización religiosa de «alianza» como «metafórica» en el sentido definido por Lakoff y Johnson (1980), en razón de su valor explicativo y heurístico. Pone en evidencia el rol cognitivo de las inferencias que autoriza la estructuración metafórica del sistema conceptual subyacente. En efecto, el empleo de un término sociológico para calificar una relación que opera en el ámbito político o religioso funda la posibilidad de atribuir tal o tal propiedad de la relación sociológica a la relación homologa en ese otro ámbito

Romania’s Pension System: The Weight of the Past

In Romania before 1989, as elsewhere in the Soviet world, retirement support was one of the few rewards that the regime offered its citizens. Retirement provisions were based exclusively transfers, through the State, from the current working population to the pensioners. Technically, the system was a Pay As You Go System. The difference was that retirement provisions, like every other facet of the economy, were planned. Workers did not choose, but were told, when to retire. Early retirment was not envisioned. Sick live was strictly controlled and limited. There was no unemployment, and the penalties for any enterprise which evaded payments to the system were prohibitive (The State Bank was simply prohibited from paying wages until wage taxes had been paid). Transfers in cash and kind to the pensioners were strictly limited to the resources available. As a consequence, before 1989, Romania.s retirement system can be considered to have been consistently in excess. In the years which followed the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu, the public retirement system lost the constraints imposed by a command economy, and its implicit tensions became manifest. As the dispersion of wages increased under the pressure of even proto-market forces, disparities between benefits and contributions appeared, and the pressure for tax evasion grew. Tax discipline deteriorated. Furthermore, the new Government extended the pension system it had inherited, increasing the benefits and relaxing the qualifications, in response to political pressures. The result was that the system became fiscally imbalanced, and that, paradoxically, though privileges multiplied, actual average benefits declined. By 1997, the public pension system was in deficit, and the average real benefit had fallen to 45 % of its level in 1990. In 1998, Romania began an ambitious reform of its pension system, and proceed with a plan to introduce by stages a completely new three-pillar system. The form entailed a radical change of the public pension system (including the transition to a "point" system, unification of regimes, and increases in retirement ages), and a diversion of one third of the mandatory social security tax to a new private system of Universal Pension Funds. This paper presents and analyses the weight of the past. It describes the institutional weaknesses of the pre-reform system and analyses the demographic pressures threatening it. It concludes with a calculation of the implicit debt of the pre-reform system in 1997.Romania, pension systems

The role of kindergarten architectural design in increasing the creativity of children

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of kindergarten design in increasing creativity of 3-6 year old children in district 3 of Afghanistan. For this reason, Some features of the architectural system and its role in increasing children's creativity have been investigated. Studies have shown that the kindergarten space can be designed in such a way that the child's motivation is enhanced, the power of imagination and curiosity can be enhanced and, It fosters the child's creativity. The study of children's cognitive factors was carried out by attitude test of child educators. The sampling method was random cluster sampling and the sample size was 90 people. And a researcher-made questionnaire has been used, and the factors affecting children's creativity have been extracted by factor analysis and based on analysis, a model A line has been designed. Then, the relationship and the effect of factors on each other were obtained by path analysis method. The findings show that stimulating the natural environment has a positive and significant effect on the three factors of exploring, participation game and daydreaming. The effect of design flexibility in kindergarten space on children's curiosity and daydreaming is positive and significant. Architectural ideas for designing kindergarten spaces  to enhance children's motivation and creativity, including: variability of space and its implementation, interference of spaces Open and closed, variability and regeneration of natural stimulant elements such as light, water and plants are effective in increasing children's creativity