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Elephants on the move. Patterns of public pension reform in OECD countries

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  • Hinrichs, Karl

Abstract

Among OECD countries there are two clusters of old-age security systems: (1) ‘Social insurance’ countries had, by the end of the 1960s, fashioned the core of old-age security as public, contributory, earnings-related and unfunded insurance schemes; (2) a diverse collection of countries that, after 1970, topped up their basic pension arrangements with funded occupational pension schemes with (almost) universal coverage. ‘Social insurance’ countries, on which this essay focuses, reveal at least six common trends in pension reform, all about improving the financial sustainability of public schemes. Although the repertoire of incremental adjustment strategies is quite limited, policy changes since the early 1980s have not led to a clear convergence among ‘social insurance’ countries (or across the two clusters). Their original diversity has been somewhat diminished, but it has for the most part merely taken a different form. Public pension reforms regularly harmed (future) beneficiaries. Nevertheless, most reforms were actually based on broad political consensus. The success of attempts to introduce retrenchment policies depends on prior negotiation with – and support obtained from – collective actors above and beyond a simple parliamentary majority. This peculiar prerequisite ensures success in the sense of a sustained implementation of the measures taken and of actual improvement in public trust in ‘reliable’ pension schemes.

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  • Hinrichs, Karl, 2000. "Elephants on the move. Patterns of public pension reform in OECD countries," European Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 353-378, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:eurrev:v:8:y:2000:i:03:p:353-378_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Dickson, Matt & Postel-Vinay, Fabien & Turon, Hélène, 2014. "The lifetime earnings premium in the public sector: The view from Europe," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 141-161.
    2. Rossella Ciccia, 2017. "A two-step approach for the analysis of hybrids in comparative social policy analysis: a nuanced typology of childcare between policies and regimes," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(6), pages 2761-2780, November.
    3. Bernhard Ebbinghaus, 2009. "Can Path Dependence Explain Institutional Change? Two Approaches Applied to Welfare State Reform," Chapters, in: Lars Magnusson & Jan Ottosson (ed.), The Evolution of Path Dependence, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Manow, Philip, 2004. "The good, the bad, and the ugly: Esping-Andersen's regime typology and the religious roots of the Western welfare state," MPIfG Working Paper 04/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    5. Fernandez, Juan J., 2010. "Economic crises, high public pension spending and blame-avoidance strategies: Pension policy retrenchments in 14 social-insurance countries, 1981 - 2005," MPIfG Discussion Paper 10/9, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    6. J rg Neugschwender, 2015. "Pension Institutions and Income Inequality across European Societies: Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom," LIS Working papers 627, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. Powell, Martin & Béland, Daniel & Waddan, Alex, 2018. "The Americanization of the British National Health Service: A typological approach," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(7), pages 775-782.
    8. Giulia M Dotti Sani & Matteo Luppi, 2021. "Absence from Work after the Birth of the First Child and Mothers’ Retirement Incomes: A Comparative Analysis of 10 European Countries," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(3), pages 470-489, June.
    9. Jim Been & Olaf Vliet, 2017. "Early Retirement across Europe. Does Non-Standard Employment Increase Participation of Older Workers?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(2), pages 163-188, May.
    10. Miroslav Verbič & Rok Spruk, 2019. "Political economy of pension reforms: an empirical investigation," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 171-232, April.
    11. Pundarik Mukhopadhaya & Sunil Venaik, 2014. "Old-Age Income Insecurity in Singapore: A Problem of Non-Inclusive Development," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3-4), pages 184-206, December.
    12. Carrera, Leandro N. & Angelaki, Marina, 2020. "The diversity and causality of pension reform pathways: a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102554, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Stefano Sacchi & Federico Pancaldi & Claudia Arisi, 2011. "The Economic Crisis as a Trigger of Convergence? Short-time work in Italy, Germany and Austria," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 199, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    14. Hinrichs, Karl, 2004. "Active Citizens and Retirement Planning: Enlarging Freedom of Choice in the Course of Pension Reforms in Nordic Countries and Germany," Working papers of the ZeS 11/2004, University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS).

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