Most European countries have set up a mandatory unfunded pension scheme, often called first pillar, financed through contributions levied on wages. Although this common characteristic is crucial, the systems significantly differ in many aspects. Most importantly they differ in the level of the...

This paper provides unprecedented direct evidence from large-scale survey data on both the intensity (how much?) and direction (to whom?) of income comparisons. Income comparisons are considered to be at least somewhat important by three-quarters of Europeans. They are associated with both lower...