The recent financial crisis has led to major losses among many pension funds across Europe, showing the problems in shifting responsibility for old-age income to private actors without sufficient regulation. The impact of the crisis on pension funds and future retirement benefits depends on good governance and effective regulation. There is a large cross-national variation in pension fund capitalism and its regulation across Europe. We compare private supplementary pensions in six countries (Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) and analyse how these different systems have reacted to the crisis. Whereas higher contributions and delayed indexation may be temporary measures, more important are the long-term consequences for individuals, in particular the diminished rates of return leading to lower pensions. The sponsoring firms, pension funds, the social partners and the state therefore need to adapt investment strategies and strengthen the supervisory mechanisms.
Ré suméLa crise financière récente a provoqué des pertes majeures pour beaucoup de fonds de pension à travers l'Europe, en mettant en lumière les problèmes posés par le transfert aux acteurs privés de la responsabilité du revenu de vieillesse sans une réglementation suffisante. L'impact de la crise sur les fonds de pension et les revenus futurs de retraite dépend de la bonne gouvernance et d'une réglementation efficace. Il existe une grande variété en matière de développement et de réglementation des fonds de pension privés à travers l'Europe. Nous comparons les systèmes de pension complémentaire privée dans six pays (le Danemark, l'Allemagne, le Royaume-Uni, les Pays-Bas, la Suède et la Suisse) et nous analysons comment ces différents systèmes ont réagi à la crise. Si une augmentation des cotisations et un report de l'indexation peuvent être des mesures temporaires, les conséquences à long terme pour les individus sont plus importantes, en particulier
Although studies have examined the distribution and conditions of employer‐provided work–family arrangements, we still lack a systematic investigation of how these vary for different countries and industries. Based on the European Working Conditions Survey 2010, this study examines the conditions under which firms provide family‐friendly working time arrangements and what the differences are across four countries (Austria, Denmark, Italy and the UK) and four industries. The impact of employee representatives, employee involvement, manager support and female managers varies across countries and industries because of the institutional environment (prevailing family model, industrial relations) and workforce composition (gender). The impact of employee representatives depends on their co‐determination rights, and the direction of their effect on the prevailing family model (e.g. negative in conservative countries such as Austria) and the gender composition of the workforce (negative in male‐dominated production, but positive in services). Employee involvement in the work organization is significantly positive in Austria and Denmark (both with co‐operative industrial relations), while manager support has the strongest effect in the UK (liberal regime). At the industry level, female supervisors are positively associated with family‐friendly working time arrangements only in the male‐dominated production industry. These findings suggest that the effects of agency variables and their direction vary depending on the institutional context.
Financialisation has become a key feature of post-industrial economies. This special issue sheds light on pre-funded private pensions as one key component of financialisation, as they turn savings into investment via financial services providers. Public pension systems face financial pressures, resulting from ageing and rising public debt, while financial services are keen to move into the market of private pension provision. Pre-funded private pensions are shaped by regulatory policies that create and correct markets. The financial crisis has triggered policy responses including shifts in investment strategies and also a re-assessment of the role of pre-funded private pensions as a complementary, rather than a superior, source of oldage income. Policymakers' growing awareness of the benefits of collective occupational schemes administered by the social partners may pave the way for a greater role for collective schemes.
This article analyses the interplay of public and occupational work-family policies in institutionally different countries (Austria, Denmark, Italy and United Kingdom). Most of the existing studies do not analyse public and occupational family policy in conjunction, although this is necessary for a comprehensive understanding of family policy, and therefore the article adds knowledge on work-family policy and the interplay of public and occupational based approaches. Based on a diverse case selection strategy and using comparative information from European statistics, surveys and reports, the crowding-out hypothesis is excluded, but no one consistent relationship is found for all countries. Instead, the article adds to existing knowledge that the country-specific public-private mix depends on the institutional context (e.g. public family policy) and industrial relations.
Studies analysing welfare have previously focused on countries as units. In the course of pension cuts and the increasing importance of occupational welfare, our traditional understanding of a homogeneous welfare state is being challenged. In this article, I distinguish between both economic individual power (employee skills) and political collective power (trade unions), and their relation with different occupational pensions. A combined analysis by both factors is not common, where employee skills and power resources are traditionally treated as separate, rival explanations of public welfare. Combining the ‘method of difference’ with the ‘method of agreement’, the article first presents the within-country variety of occupational pensions in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Denmark. Occupational pensions in the same economic sectors across countries are then used as the units of analysis in order to illustrate the plausible determinants of economic individual power and political collective power.
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