Modelos de financiarización de las pensiones en cuatro estados de bienestar europeos

Abstract

Este artículo analiza la financiarización de las pensiones en cuatro estados de bienestar europeos: el Reino Unido, Alemania, los Países Bajos y Suecia. En estos estados de bienestar, los mercados y actores financieros se han vuelto cada vez más importantes en la provisión de las pensiones. La financiarización de las pensiones es un fenómeno varia-do, que implica cambios en el mecanismo de financiación, el diseño del plan, la gestión financiera y la centralidad de las pensiones de capitalización en la economía política. Las configuraciones nacionales específicas de estas dimensio-nes han creado patrones distintos de financiarización en los cuatro casos. Sostengo que cada patrón es el resultado de puntos de conflicto específicos para la reforma de dichas políticas, que han surgido del contexto institucional del sis-tema nacional de pensiones. La localización de estos ele-mentos de referencia institucionales ayuda a identificar me-canismos comunes de financiarización en todos los casos, que se caracterizan por una variedad empírica.

Regulation from the inside? Internal supervision in Dutch pension funds

“…At the same time, few policy responses actually halted pension financialization. On the contrary: studies of post-crisis pension politics have shown a deepening of pension financialization in various European welfare states (Van der Zwan, 2020; Wiß, 2019).…”

“…Pension funds also play an important role in processes of financialization. Pension financialization, or ‘the growing role of financial markets and financial actors in the provision of old-age pensions’ (Van der Zwan, 2020: 2), has been associated with several empirical developments. These include, but are not limited to, the transformation of defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension schemes as well as changes in pension institutions’ investment policies, often attributed to legal relaxations of pension investment rules (e.g.…”

“…These include, but are not limited to, the transformation of defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension schemes as well as changes in pension institutions’ investment policies, often attributed to legal relaxations of pension investment rules (e.g. Berry, 2021; Bonizzi et al, 2021; Van der Zwan, 2020). Such changes have been associated with workers’ and retirees’ increased dependence on financial markets and, by extension, with growing investment risks in retirement provisions (e.g.…”

Financializing nursing homes? The uneven development of Health Care REITs in France, the United Kingdom and Japan

“…However, studies in European countries have found that the strong involvement of non-financial firms and trade unions in the management of occupational funds has helped to limit the influence of the financial industry (Hassel et al, 2019; Naczyk, 2016). The UK is a notable exception, with a significant shift to defined contribution schemes that have exposed workers to the vagaries of financial markets (Langley and Leaver, 2012; Natali, 2018; Van der Zwan, 2020). An unintended consequence of this development has been to discourage an increasing number of employees from joining pension schemes: with a poverty rate of 15% amongst people aged 65 years and over, the UK share is less than the US share (23%), but is well above the OECD average (3%–8%) (Geppert and Reilly, 2019).…”