No abstract

This paper aims to establish which factors influence whether people in eastern/central European countries decide to continue in paid work or retire. The situation in Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Slovakia in 2010 is analysed. In order to pursue this aim, the following objectives were set: firstly, to analyse previous research on the topic, secondly, to evaluate factors influencing people’s decisions on whether to continue in paid work or retire in selected eastern/central European countries, and, finally, to conclude. Secondary analysis was conducted in order to pursue the research aim. Sources of data include European Social Survey Round 5 (2010) data, Eurostat, and MISSOC. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to analyse the data. The extent to which a person is willing to engage in work on reaching the legal age of retirement is analysed in relation to economic situation, state of health, and working conditions.

Mandatory pension systems occupy a central role in the system of social security because of the share of social expenditure in national economies. One of the goals of pension system is to redistribute incomes among individuals. However, it is not clear how the intentions to redistribute incomes coincide with the outcomes. In this paper, we will study the difference between the intentions as they are articulated within institutions, with the outcomes that are generated by them. We use the method of comparative institutional analysis in order to find out the differences. Our comparative institutional analysis is based on the grammar of institutions that is proposed by Crawford and Ostrom. Also, in order to understand the differences, we will compare the institutions in relatively similar cases – the Baltic States. The results show that there is a gap between the intentions and outcomes to redistribute incomes among individuals. The findings from the comparative institutional analysis suggest that the most redistributive old age pension system is in Estonia. However, according to the factual information from Eurostat, the greatest distributive effect is produced by the mandatory pension system of Lithuania.

The exit from the labor market in old age is a process determined by different institutional factors of the labor market. Working conditions, employment protection regulation, organizational policies and employers' attitude can either make people stop working or motivate them to work longer. The decision to stay or withdraw from the labor market in old age with regard to the employment policies in the Central and Eastern EU member states is analyzed in the paper. Central and Eastern European countries have been selected due to their similar historical development, as well as due to the advantages of comparative analysis providing more robust results based on the data from several national cases. For the literature analysis, the document meta‐analysis and the analysis of data from the European Social Survey (ESS5, 2010) and Eurobarometer 76.2 (September–October 2011), including methods such as descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression was applied. The willingness to continue in paid work after retirement is influenced by the complexity of the institutional factors related to the working time, autonomy at work, work and family balance, training opportunities, adjustment of the work place, the view of the employers and antidiscrimination actions. The analysis revealed the demand for effective policies in the fields of promoting productivity and fighting discrimination in Central and Eastern European countries.

The ageing labour force is the one of the main challenges for the labour market in Lithuania. The working career of older employees very much depends on the policies and attitude of employers. Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyse the policies and attitudes of Lithuanian employers towards older employees. The data of Eurobarometer 76.2 in 2011 and the data of the employers’ survey in Lithuania in 2014 were used for the implementation of the goal. The construction, trade, education, health care and public administration sectors were selected on arbitrary basis. The respondents were surveyed by telephone. The sample of the survey included 216 managers or staff managers. The employers in primary data of Eurobarometer 76.2 were defined as general and middle managers. The data were analysed using the method of factor analysis. The secondary Eurostat data were used for the analysis of socioeconomic context. The legal norms were analysed using national documents. The main findings of the research reveal the general positive attitude of employers towards older workers in Lithuania. However, the existing workplace practice gives little encouragement for prolonging the working career in older age due to obsolete cultural and legal norms.