Extending working lives and related social inequalities in ageing welfare states

This doctoral thesis studies the recent dynamics of old-age inequality related to extending working lives from a comparative perspective. It contributes to the understanding of pension systems, labour market institutions, social stratification in late careers and retirement income inequality. <em...

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Main Author: Lee, K
Other Authors: Ebbinghaus, B
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
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author Lee, K
author2 Ebbinghaus, B
author_facet Ebbinghaus, B
Lee, K
author_sort Lee, K
collection OXFORD
description This doctoral thesis studies the recent dynamics of old-age inequality related to extending working lives from a comparative perspective. It contributes to the understanding of pension systems, labour market institutions, social stratification in late careers and retirement income inequality. <em>Paper 1</em> examines how public pension spending is associated with old-age employment rates of population subgroups and whether the associations vary across countries with different institutional designs of public pensions, using time-series cross-section data from 20 European countries and the United States from 1998 to 2019. Findings show that, while the employment rates of female and low-educated groups are more sensitive to pension spending changes, the estimated effects differ between insurance-based pension systems and tax-financed, flat-rate benefit systems. <em>Paper 2</em> explores how cross-country variations in ‘new’ policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis and ‘old’ welfare state institutions explain early exit from work in Europe following the pandemic, based on a panel survey of 26 countries. Results reveal that while job retention schemes and expanded unemployment benefits had opposite effects, existing pension institutions moderated exit outcomes especially among lower-educated workers. <em>Paper 3</em> analyses the social stratification of retirement processes and their pension income consequences following major institutional and socio-economic transformations in Germany by studying several cohorts until 2019. Using administrative pension insurance records linked with survey data, the study demonstrates persistent social stratification in late working lives by gender and education level, with some convergence between East and West Germans. Inequalities in retirement trajectories also partly explain pension income inequality. <em>Paper 4</em> estimates the impact of non-contributory pensions on old-age poverty, based on the recent Basic Pension expansions in South Korea. Using the Korean Household Income and Expenditure Survey and a difference-in-difference design, the study finds that the series of reforms effectively reduced older people’s poverty without undermining their employment outcomes.
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spelling oxford-uuid:9b64014a-4796-4150-b772-40f323fb2ce12024-10-02T08:55:34ZExtending working lives and related social inequalities in ageing welfare statesThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:9b64014a-4796-4150-b772-40f323fb2ce1Old age pensionsSocial policyLabor marketWelfare stateRetirementEnglishHyrax Deposit2024Lee, KEbbinghaus, BNaczyk, MThis doctoral thesis studies the recent dynamics of old-age inequality related to extending working lives from a comparative perspective. It contributes to the understanding of pension systems, labour market institutions, social stratification in late careers and retirement income inequality. <em>Paper 1</em> examines how public pension spending is associated with old-age employment rates of population subgroups and whether the associations vary across countries with different institutional designs of public pensions, using time-series cross-section data from 20 European countries and the United States from 1998 to 2019. Findings show that, while the employment rates of female and low-educated groups are more sensitive to pension spending changes, the estimated effects differ between insurance-based pension systems and tax-financed, flat-rate benefit systems. <em>Paper 2</em> explores how cross-country variations in ‘new’ policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis and ‘old’ welfare state institutions explain early exit from work in Europe following the pandemic, based on a panel survey of 26 countries. Results reveal that while job retention schemes and expanded unemployment benefits had opposite effects, existing pension institutions moderated exit outcomes especially among lower-educated workers. <em>Paper 3</em> analyses the social stratification of retirement processes and their pension income consequences following major institutional and socio-economic transformations in Germany by studying several cohorts until 2019. Using administrative pension insurance records linked with survey data, the study demonstrates persistent social stratification in late working lives by gender and education level, with some convergence between East and West Germans. Inequalities in retirement trajectories also partly explain pension income inequality. <em>Paper 4</em> estimates the impact of non-contributory pensions on old-age poverty, based on the recent Basic Pension expansions in South Korea. Using the Korean Household Income and Expenditure Survey and a difference-in-difference design, the study finds that the series of reforms effectively reduced older people’s poverty without undermining their employment outcomes.
spellingShingle Old age pensions
Social policy
Labor market
Welfare state
Retirement
Lee, K
Extending working lives and related social inequalities in ageing welfare states
title Extending working lives and related social inequalities in ageing welfare states
title_full Extending working lives and related social inequalities in ageing welfare states
title_fullStr Extending working lives and related social inequalities in ageing welfare states
title_full_unstemmed Extending working lives and related social inequalities in ageing welfare states
title_short Extending working lives and related social inequalities in ageing welfare states
title_sort extending working lives and related social inequalities in ageing welfare states
topic Old age pensions
Social policy
Labor market
Welfare state
Retirement
work_keys_str_mv AT leek extendingworkinglivesandrelatedsocialinequalitiesinageingwelfarestates