Extending working lives and related social inequalities in ageing welfare states

Thesis

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. Paper 1 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. Paper 2 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. Paper 3 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. Paper 4 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.

Authors: Lee, K

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-bpawb0xzk
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: public pensions; labor market policies; inequality; retirement; comparative analysis
• Subjects: Old age pensions; Social policy; Labor market; Welfare state; Retirement