Labour Market Flexibility and Pension Reforms

Increasingly flexible labour markets and reforms of old-age pension systems are still ranking high on the political agenda of European countries. This volume investigates whether, and to what extent, the interplay between pension reforms and the spread of 'atypical' employment patterns and fragmented careers has a negative influence uponeconomic security in old age. The volume, therefore, analyzes the flexibility-security nexus by focusing on the post-retirement phase, thus extending the conventional narrow concept of 'flexicurity'. The book also questions whetherreforms of public and private pension schemes compensate or aggravate the risks of increasingly flexible labor markets and atypical employment careers after retirement? Around this overarching research question, the various contributions in the volume employ the same analytical framework in order to map, and then compare, the developments in seven European countries - Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK which present different labour market arrangements and various degrees of flexibility, as well as diverse pension systems.

Increasingly flexible labour markets and reforms of old-age pension systems are still ranking high on the political agenda of European countries. This volume investigates whether, and to what extent, the interplay between pension reforms and the spread of 'atypical' employment patterns and fragmented careers has a negative influence uponeconomic security in old age. The volume, therefore, analyzes the flexibility-security nexus by focusing on the post-retirement phase, thus extending the conventional narrow concept of 'flexicurity'. The book also questions whetherreforms of public and private pension schemes compensate or aggravate the risks of increasingly flexible labor markets and atypical employment careers after retirement? Around this overarching research question, the various contributions in the volume employ the same analytical framework in order to map, and then compare, the developments in seven European countries - Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK which present different labour market arrangements and various degrees of flexibility, as well as diverse pension systems.

List of illustrations Notes on Contributors Preface and Acknowledgements RECWOWE Book Series: Work and Welfare in Europe Funding Labour Market Flexibility and Pension Reforms: What Prospects for Old-Age Security?; K.Hinrichs & M.Jessoula Germany: A Flexible Labor Market plus Pension Reforms Makes Old-Age Poverty; K.Hinrichs The Italian Risky Combination: 'Selective Flexibility' and Defined-Contributions Pensions; M.Jessoula Poland: Are Flexible Labour Markets Ready for Individualized Pensions?; I.Guardiancich Lessons from the UK: When Multi-Pillar Pension Systems Meet Flexible Labour Markets; D.Natali Switzerland: Building a Multipillar Pension System for a Flexible Labour Market; S.Häusermann & H.Schwander The Danish Flexicurity Model and Old Age Protection; N.Ploug The Netherlands: Reconciling Labour Market Flexicurity with Security in Old Age; K.Anderson Flexible Today, Secure Tomorrow?; M.Jessoula & K.Hinrichs Bibliography Index