1st Edition
Pension Reform in Europe Politics, Policies and Outcomes
This new book provides a cross-country comparative analysis of the key issues shaping the latest pension reforms in Europe: political games, welfare models and pathways, population reactions, and observed and expected outcomes.
Pension reform has been a top policy priority for European governments in the last decade. Ageing populations, changing labour market patterns and the process of European integration are the ‘irresistible forces’ pushing for reform throughout the region.
The Political Economy of Pension Reform evaluates the political forces that make pension reform viable in different national and institutional contexts and the nature of political bargains, actors and cleavages surrounding policy change. The volume also examines the nature and outcomes of pension reform experiences in Europe, searching for a solution to the financial challenge posed by growing pension budgets. By addressing the nature of change, the pathways of reform, and the outcomes of the new pension mix in the region, the authors conclude with an analysis of people’s perceptions and attitudes towards pension policy and their acceptance or otherwise of different reform options.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international political economy, European politics, and social policy.
1. Introduction by Camila Arza and Martin Kohli
Part I. The political economy of pension reform
2. The private occupational and personal pensions by Robin Blackburn
3. Trade-offs and distributive outcomes in Bismarckian pension reforms by David Natali and Martin Rhodes
4. Between conflict and consensus - the reform of Bismarckian pension regimes by Martin Schludi
5. “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die” Pension reform and the limits of path dependence by Einar Øverbye
6. The politics and outcomes of three-pillar pensions in Central and Eastern Europe by Katharina Müller
Part II. Reform options and outcomes
7. Changing European welfare. A new distribution pattern of pension policy?by Camila Arza
8. Economic costs and benefits of alternative reform options by Giancarlo Corsetti
9. The gender pension gap: Effects of norms and reform policies by Patricia Frericks
10. Common origins, different evolution, similar outcomes: New comparative observations on European pension schemes by Martin Rein and Karen Anderson
11. Generational equity: Concepts and attitudes by Martin Kohli
Biography
Camila Arza is Research Fellow at FLACSO-Argentina.
Martin Kohli is Professor of Sociology at the European University Institute, Italy.
'...a very welcome addition to the literature and provides students and researchers of pension system change in Europe and beyond with much to debate and discuss.'
Paul Bridges, University of Southampton, UK
