Reforming social security in economies in transition: Problems and policies in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova

In the Republic of Moldova, as in other former Soviet republics, a great deal of pressure has been put on the social security system by the removal of general consumer subsidies and their replacement with targeted compensation payments (assistance). The growth of assistance needs has made it difficult to reform earnings-related pension provision along "insurance" lines. There have also been adverse developments in the labour market. Large-scale open unemployment has not emerged, but insurance contributions are not being paid. Some of the measures which have been adopted to deal with the resulting financial crisis are counterproductive for the development of a social security system compatible with a market economy.     

Between labour market and retirement pension — flexible transition as a new paradigm for ageing societies?

Increasing the pensionable age due to rising life expectancy meets strong political resistance. For health and labour market reasons it will always be impossible for some to achieve full pension eligibility directly from employment. Even if early retirement options are not restricted the scope for an accumulation of earnings to fund an early pension is often narrowly defined. Consequently, it is impossible for early retirees to compensate for the reductions in the pension they receive. Contrary to the general tendency to increase the pensionable age an alternative reform proposal is currently under discussion in German social policy circles. This involves free choice of retirement at age 60; unlimited accumulation of additional pension entitlements whilst earning; actuarial deductions for early retirement; and consideration of life expectancy in making adjustments to pension awards. This solution relieves the public pension system financially, raises the attractiveness of senior citizens on the labour market, offers the opportunity for a self‐determined transition from work to retirement and reduces political resistance to pension reform. The effect on the labour market for senior citizens remains to be examined.     

Social risks and public pension in South Korea

This study investigated how traditional and new social risks have emerged in South Korea and how policies have coped with them, focusing on the public pension program. Using national statistics data and publicly published government reports, factors such as marital status, economic activity, and the insurance trend of the public pension by age and gender for the last decade were examined. Main results are as follows. Women's labor force participation has slightly increased; however, career discontinuity remains and new family risks have increased. Second, women's public pension coverage as a percentage of the employment rate has substantially increased, implying that old labor market risks have largely been reduced for female workers. Third, the public pension insured rate among male workers has decreased to a small degree, which implies that new labor market risks are increasing for male workers. Consequently, the gender gap in risk has been reduced; however, policies established to deal with new risks have introduced some gender effects     

Pan‐European pension funds: Current situation and future prospects

The competitive pressures arising from European economic integration increasingly challenge the territorial sovereignty of national welfare states. This generates the need to situate domestic social security schemes amid the European Union's national and supranational as well as economic and social spaces. At the trans‐national level, the European Commission's 2003 Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP) Directive created the illusion that a single market for occupational pensions would shortly be within reach. This did not happen, however, as IORPs — being at one and the same time financial vehicles and social insurance institutions — embody the constitutional asymmetry between policies promoting market efficiency and policies promoting social protection. Whereas the elimination of financial and tax barriers has proceeded smoothly, harmonization of the social and labour components within the occupational pension domain did not occur, slowing down the development of pan‐European pension plans. Nonetheless the road towards a single occupational pension market is still open, with first positive results emerging from the greater involvement of corporate and supranational actors.     

Older people, work and equal opportunity

People in industrialized countries are living longer, having fewer children and retiring sooner. The proportion of older people in the population is rising; their labour force participation is declining. These trends are arousing apprehensions about future labour supply and pension financing as contributor/beneficiary ratios decrease. A widely advocated policy response is to seek higher participation rates, especially by raising pensionable ages and restricting early retirement. Little has been done to improve the labour market position of seniors. Three-pronged action is needed: promoting training, placement and workplace flexibility; changing attitudes through education and information; and prohibiting age discrimination in employment.     

France: working longer takes time,in spite of reforms to raise the retirement age

Examination of the French situation from a comparative European perspective exposes the country's poor performance with regard to the employment of seniors and the prolongation of working life. Despite a recent rise in the employment rate of 55–59 year‐olds, worrisome signs have appeared, such as the steep rise in unemployment for this age category; this is indicative of the increasing vulnerability of ageing workers in the labour market. This critical analysis of twenty years of French public policies related to older workers seeks to identify the reasons for France's lag in making working life longer. The principal reason seems to be that public policies have nearly exclusively focused on increasing the supply of senior labour without adequately taking into account incentives for stimulating corporate demand for it. The many pension reforms undertaken from 2003 to 2014 have sought to lift the institutional obstacles to working longer. Accordingly, they have raised both the legal retirement age and the requisite number of quarters of contributions for entitlement to a full pension under Social Security. But effective, active labour market policies for stimulating the demand for senior labour have been lacking.     

Pension Reforms in Europe and Life-course Politics

In recent years, somewhat drastic pension reforms have taken place in all European countries. The pension systems developed in the last century are no longer considered to be suited to the changing demographic constellations in European countries, and the financial sustainability of these systems is under threat. Moreover, the changing political and economic set‐up in European countries is also used to justify reforming the different pension systems. Different reasons can be given to explain the various pension reform measures without, however, there being any integrated coherence. We suggest that a politics of social policy, and of pension policy in particular, based on a life‐course perspective, facilitates the understanding of the whole range of pension reform measures. In the past, the elaborated pension systems were attuned to a normative standard biography. A new standard biography, with different phases and more transitions and combinations, enables one to understand the variety of the ongoing pension reform measures. Such a life‐course perspective integrates sequences of learning, working and caring considered necessary for the polity. In other words, it is based on a conception of human potential, and it integrates, to some extent, the previously separate domains of labour market policy, education policy, care policy and pension policy. However, recent theoretical and empirical studies of the life course lead to a critical evaluation of the new standard biography, with the conclusion that the new standard is one‐sided and scientifically unsound, entailing challenges for social policy.     

The effects on intra‐generational inequality of introducing a funded pension scheme: A microsimulation analysis for Estonia

This article uses a single male cohort microsimulation model to analyse the intra‐generational and distributional effects of a shift in Estonia from a defined benefit pay‐as‐you‐go (PAYG) pension system to a multi‐pillared system with a PAYG scheme with contribution‐based insurance components and a funded pension scheme. We contribute to the literature on microsimulation by showing how introducing contribution‐based insurance components and compulsory defined contribution (DC) schemes can increase pension inequality. Our results show that in the case of a high level of inequality in labour earnings and high long‐term unemployment rates, such as in Estonia, the introduction of a very strong link between contributions and future benefits leads to considerably higher inequality in pension incomes as measured by the Gini coefficient. Simulation results for Estonia suggest that inequality in old‐age pension incomes more than doubles when the reforms mature. In contrast, the inequality in replacement rates decreases.     

The challenges of establishing basic pension insurance for migrant workers in urban China

Since the late 1990s, migrant workers in China have exhibited little enthusiasm to participate in the basic pension insurance schemes that have been promoted by the central and local governments in China. Previous research found that socioeconomic and family factors might have influenced migrant workers' decision to participate in the basic pension schemes. This article explores the impact of institutional factors on migrant workers' willingness to participate in the scheme, such as the work place, the nature of the enterprise, workers' labour contract status, workers' knowledge of the scheme, as well as their personal contribution rate.     

Ethnicity and Occupational Pension Membership in the UK

Reflecting a relatively low‐value Basic State Pension, occupational pensions have historically been a key aspect of pension protection within Britain. Existing research shows that minority ethnic groups are less likely to benefit from such pensions and are more likely to face poverty in later life, as a result of the interaction of their labour market participation and pension membership patterns. However, the lack of adequate data on ethnic minorities has so far prevented the direct comparison of different ethnic groups, as well as their comparison to the White British group. Using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, this article explores patterns of employment and the odds ratios of membership in an employer's pension scheme among working‐age individuals from minority ethnic groups and the White British population, taking into account factors not used by previous research, such as one's migration history and sector of employment (public/private). The analysis provides new empirical evidence confirming that ethnicity remains a strong determinant of one's pension protection prospects through being in paid work, being an employee and working for an employer who offers a pension scheme. However, once an individual is working for an employer offering a pension scheme, the effect of ethnicity on that person's odds of being a member of that scheme reduces, except among Pakistani and Bangladeshi individuals for whom the differentials remain. The article also provides evidence on the pension protection of Polish individuals, a relatively ‘new’ minority group in the UK.     

Social Security at The Crossroads: Toward Effective Pension Reform in Latin America

Individual pension savings accounts in Latin America promised to improve compliance and raise benefits in a cost‐effective manner, while at the same time raising savings rates, which would in turn promote economic growth. A review of the evolution of pension reform in Latin America shows results to have been mixed. Analyses of the recent reforms generally fail to consider the extent to which the success or failure of pension systems is driven by exogenous factors, including macroeconomic and labour market conditions, and institutions. A number of recent studies have issued a reassessment of the region's reforms that stresses the importance of a basic guaranteed pension benefit and recognizes that a range of alternatives are viable in the region. Pension systems based on individual accounts are undergoing a thorough reevaluation.     

The disembedded digital economy: Social protection for new economy employment in China

This research focuses upon employment in the new economy, exploring labour protection and social protection in the digital age in China. Through an empirical survey conducted in three Chinese cities, social insurance and the labour rights of employees in the digital economic sector, such as gig employment, e-commerce, and various other forms of online employment, have been examined in-depth. This study reveals new regulatory loopholes in the digital labour market, which have substantially eroded the basis of social policy arrangements in China, “softening” participation in social insurance branches and compliance with labour regulations remarkably. Drawing upon the theoretical concepts of Polanyi on embeddedness and disembeddedness, we argue that the digital employment sector in China has been increasingly disembedded from social institutions and social control. The new configuration in the digital field of social policy requires novel conceptual models and institutional settings to cope with increasing social risks in virtual spaces.     

Old‐age protection for women in the Spanish pension system

The example of Spain confirms the common view that contributory pension systems reproduce inequalities between the sexes that result from the nature of labour market structures and the sharing of family responsibilities. In general, women who stay at home are not entitled to their own pensions and are dependent on benefits of lower value such as survivors' pensions (derived entitlements) or non‐contributory pensions. In turn, women who work outside the home accrue lower entitlements than men and, consequently, lower old‐age or disability pensions (personal entitlements). The purpose of this article is to examine the figures for pension distribution by sex in Spain, review some of the pension policies that have been implemented since 2000, and propose direct action for progress in the transition from derived entitlements to personal entitlements. These proposals are designed to promote sex equality, defined as the right to equal well‐being and financial security in old age.     

The recalibration of the Danish old-age pension system

Pension reform in Denmark in the 1990s is of general interest owing to the development of a system of funded, defined contribution pension schemes based on collective agreement between the parties in the labour market. The resulting pension system seems to hold some answers to the critique of funded pension schemes. This paper analyses the process which led to the 1991 pension reform and relates the discussions and solutions found in Denmark to the international debate on pension reform.     

The Italian Case: From Employment Regulation to Welfare Reforms?

This article on the Italian case is based on recent trends in labour market reform. We critically review the reform approach adopted in recent years, mainly centred on marginal legislative reforms in employment contracts. The diffusion of flexible labour contracts, especially among the younger generations and women, together with a welfare system still based on employment seniority and job characteristics, have reinforced the segmentation of the Italian labour market and social inequalities. The absence of a negotiating strategy in introducing reforms has also increased social conflict. These trends ask for a comprehensive reform of the welfare system and for active policies to support labour market transitions, a reform which is increasingly considered in the current political debate.     

外部环境视角下我国企业年金发展影响因素分析

影响企业年金发展的因素是多方面的,有宏观的外部因素,也有企业年金自身制度内部因素。本文将我国企业年金发展纳入我国社会保障体制中,综合考量基本养老保险、劳动力市场状况、收入分配体系等外部环境对企业年金的影响,为进一步加快企业年金发展提出建议.     

The interaction of pillars in multi‐pillar pension systems: A comparison of Canada,Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden

Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden have advanced multi‐pillar pension systems. Using micro‐simulations, this article presents a close examination of the interaction of pillars in these countries. The relative importance and the role of the different pension pillars vary from country to country, and according to age, income, gender and socio‐economic dimensions as well as between generations. A further area of investigation is the mitigation capacity of the four pension systems. On the one hand, adverse labour careers lead to lower life‐time earnings and lower private pension accruals. On the other hand, these effects are mitigated through the design of pillars and their interaction. Mitigation is important to income security and stability in retirement and to post‐retirement income distribution. However, mitigation mechanisms come at the cost of incentives. Moreover, in many countries, the generosity of public benefits is set to decrease – increasing the importance of private pensions. This will shift risk and uncertainty from employers and pension institutions to individuals. Thus, risks and uncertainties related to private pensions will become more important, raising questions about the division of responsibilities between public and private pensions, and about the potential of mitigating such risk through pillar interaction. These concerns are further reinforced by labour market changes. Although a pension system free of distortions is inconceivable, this article seeks to contribute to addressing how mitigation should be designed, and how mitigation and risk sharing should be balanced against incentives, challenges which are as much political as technical.     

Changing the Financing of the Lithuanian Pensions System

After the first pension reform in Lithuania, in 1995, the reforming process must continue. Important changes are needed, based on principles of old age security financing. A three-tier system has been drafted and approved by the government as a Concept of the reform. The main change proposed as a first tier is the introduction of a national pension based on the residence principle, instead of the existing basic pension based on the insurance principle. It is expected that in this way the problem will be solved of providing protection against poverty for the increasing number of people who do not have the necessary insurance record. The second tier should be a compulsory funded system based on privately managed pension funds. Several important goals would thus be achieved: diversifying the old age security risk between pay-as-you-go and funded schemes; boosting investment opportunities and encouraging financial markets to develop; offering improved incentives for the working population to contribute; and so on. The main obstacle to the introduction of the second tier is the high transition cost. The third tier would comprise voluntary pension funds: their activities should be liberated and the severe constraints on investment return removed.     

Implications of Subsidiarity for the Care of Older People in Germany

This paper examines definitions and origins of the principle of subsidiarity and its application to welfare systems of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) with particular reference to the care of older people. The German corporatist welfare system is influenced by conservative views about status relations and Catholic teachings on family responsibilities. Since unification of Germany in 1990 new care systems based on the principle of subsidiarity have been imposed in eastern Germany. The FRG's social insurance system based on entitlement benefits those fully employed, while women and marginalized groups with low status in the labour market are poorly covered by insurance and may have to rely on stigmatizing means-tested social welfare based on subsidiarity. Access to pluralist, fragmented care services depends on eligibility for funding through insurance or social welfare or else on ability to pay. Social care is poorly developed because of the emphasis on insurance and the medical model as well as on the principles of subsidiarity and self help which place an explicit duty on the family, mainly women, to care.