The Analysis Of The Reasons And Influences Of The Market-oriented Reform Of Endowment Insurance System In The UK

In recent years, the pension system and the life styles faced a lot of challenges in most countries as a result of the tendency of economic globalisation and ageing of population. The traditional public pension system had a deepen crisis which on the basis of pay-as-you-go system. United Kingdom is the pioneer and typical representation in pension reform in Europe, because of its long history of pension development. After the reform by two generations of the UK Government, especially the new Labour government's reform, UK established a multi-pillar pension system, which deals with the division of labour and responsibilities successfully between the government,society and individuals in the process of market-oriented reform in pension system.After reviewed the history of UK pension system evolution, this paper pointed out that the basic reason of pension reform is that the traditional welfare system is difficult to sustain. In this historical background, this paper analyses the reasons of the market-oriented reform of endowment insurance in the UK according to the theory of institutional change. The theory of institutional change points out that the state decides the structure of property rights and takes responsibility of the economic growth, recession or stagnation. The theory of institutional change includes the state theory, the equity theory and the theory of ideology. This paper analyse the market-oriented reform from these three aspects. The state theory states that the government should take the responsibility of changing the system when it faces a serious challenge. After the analysis of international and domestic economic background, the equity theory points out that both of the backgrounds lead to the way of market-oriented reform. The new Labour government uses the Third Way theory as the foundation of ideology, which plays an important role in the government reform and the people's support to a new policy. The analysis of the socio-economic and political factors indicates that the market-oriented reform in the UK is inevitable.In addition, after the description of Britain's specific measures in market-oriented reform, this paper used the Tripartite Model, from the state, the market and the society aspects to analyse the change of the main body of obligations and responsibilities in market-oriented reform in the UK. The analysis pointed out that the re-position of the government, the development of the market and the people's acceptance are all provided favorable conditions to market-oriented reform in endowment insurance in the UK.Finally, this paper evaluated the influences of the UK market-oriented reform. At the same time, this paper discussed whether China has the necessary conditions to have market-oriented reform or not.