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Using a transaction cost perspective, this article explores the administrative costs involved in quasi-market systems of public service delivery. Employing the historical example of the interwar National Health Insurance scheme, it revives Beveridge's early criticisms of the duplication and expense incurred by the utilization of approved societies for benefit administration purposes. To this we should add the costs incurred by central audit and actuarial evaluation, the main mechanisms through which the societies were centrally regulated. The article concludes that, thanks to regulatory requirements, this poly-centric system of public administration was more expensive than a state-run equivalent - and that this message has significance for recent reforms. In the course of the analysis, the narrowness of a 'pure' transaction cost perspective is demonstrated and common assumptions concerning distinctions between 'the state and the market' in administrative structures are drawn into question. The division of public administration into these two typologies is arguably based on a false dichotomy.

Political consensus on the scope and structure of the welfare state in post-war Britain has been much overstated. The Labour governments (1945-51), committed to universalism and a planned economy, gave state welfare a central role in guaranteeing 'fair shares for all' and used it to help secure union co-operation over wage restraint. The Conservative governments (1951-64), committed to the restoration of 'sound finance', abandoned these objectives and attacked components of the welfare state designed to control prices and mediate demands for higher wages. The author concludes that, for comparative social policy studies to be effective, differing frameworks of state welfare have to be more exactly defined.

This study provides empirical evidence of the gender gap in retirement savings trajectories using a large longitudinal Australian database. The persistent trend of retirement income policy over recent decades has been to place responsibility for retirement savings accumulation with the individual employee. These plans are fundamentally linked to employment conditions and individual choices, which shape retirement savings trajectories and outcomes. Australia has a mature compulsory system and thus provides insight for countries embarking on similar paths. This study shows that the gender gap in retirement savings is observable from early on in an individual's paid working life and persists over time, providing evidence that women are disadvantaged early in their careers, with few signs of improvement. Men, in contrast, are overrepresented in the upper quartile of growth in retirement savings. This study provides important empirical evidence for policymakers concerned with gender differences in retirement outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2007.00419_11.x Byline: noel whiteside (1) Author Affiliation: (1)University of Warwick