Using data from several large scale longitudinal surveys, this paper investigates the relationship between older women‟s families histories and their personal incomes in later life in the UK, US and West Germany, By comparing three countries with very different welfare regimes, we seek to gain...

This paper examines the relationship between the family and work histories of olderwomen in the UK and their individual incomes in later life, using retrospective datafrom the first fifteen waves of the British Household Panel Survey. The associationsbetween women’s family histories and their...

We estimate the magnitude of social interaction effects in disability pension participation amongolder workers in Norway. The problem of omitted variable bias is addressed using neighbors’exposure to plant downsizing events as an instrument for the disability entry rate among one’spreviously...

This article outlines the recommendations of the UK Pensions Commission, andthe data and analysis on which they were based, including projections ofdemographic change, trends in private pension saving, and evolution of the statepension system. The Commission concluded that without reform,...

The increases in human longevity in recent decades and the trends for early retirement have posed new challenges for policy makers, and require a holistic understanding of the processes that influence the economic resources of older people. This paper contributes to this knowledge by examining...

This paper examines the decline of National Insurance in Britain, as witnessedby its declining share of all social security spending and the steady dilution ofthe “contributory principle” on which it was originally based. It argues that thisdecline is not an accident: under governments of...

This study examines the determinants of job-finding rates of unemployment benefit recipientsunder the Chilean program. This is a unique, innovative program that combines socialinsurance through a solidarity fund (SF) with self-insurance in the form of unemploymentinsurance savings accounts...

This paper revisits the role played by myopia in generating a theoreticalrationale for pay-as-you-go social security in dynamically efficient economies.Contrary to received wisdom, if the real interest rate is exogenously fixed, enough myopiamay justify public pensions but never alongside...

Reforming pensions looms large over the policy agenda of OECD countries. This is hardlysurprising since public spending on pensions accounted on average for 7 per cent of OECDGDP in 2005; and this pension spending effort is set to increase significantly over the comingdecades in response to...

This study analyses the development of the economic well-being of the elderly in Swedensince 1990 - a period characterized by increased influence from the financial market andextreme economic events - using data from the Household Income Survey. The elderly werenot isolated as pensions were cut,...