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Retirement Pension Reforms in Six European Social Insurance Schemes between 2000 and 2017: More Financial Sustainability and More Gender Inequality?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2018

Manuela Arcanjo
Manuela Arcanjo*
Affiliation:
School of Economics and Management, Universidade de Lisboa, and Research Centre of Economic Sociology and Organisations E-mail: marcanjo@iseg.ulisboa.pt
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Abstract

In 2000, the European Union established three principles that should guide Member State pension systems and their reforms: the financial sustainability of pension systems; adequacy of pensions; and the modernisation of systems. The latter included the achievement of greater gender equality and sought to respond to the significant gender gaps in public pension systems. This article demonstrates how the reforms carried out over the period 2000–2017 have focused on strengthening the financial sustainability of systems but may also have contributed to even greater gender inequality in old age protection. To this end, we examine the major legislative amendments concerning eligibility criteria and entitlement conditions in six countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal and Spain), as representative of the social insurance scheme.

Keywords

Old-age pensionspension reformsgender equalitysocial insurance schemes
Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 501 - 515
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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