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Trust in Ageing Societies: Confidence in Pensions Across Europe

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Abstract

This chapter examines how confidence in pensions across Europe changed between 2004 and 2009 and explores whether problem pressures such as population ageing or the financial crisis led to an erosion of confidence in pensions. Moreover, it examined whether there are some institutional designs and pension reforms that are able to foster trust. The results confirm the general expectation that problem pressures lead to lower confidence in pensions. Moreover, retrenchment and restructuring rather erode than foster confidence in pensions. Finally, at the individual level, a good economic situation is correlated with higher confidence in pensions, whereas unemployment risks and insecure career prospects are linked to lower confidence. The study does not find evidence that political parties or trade unions influence their members’ confidence in pensions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SFB 884 “Political Economy of Reforms”, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Elias Naumann

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  1. Elias Naumann
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Bernhard Ebbinghaus

  2. SFB 884 “Political Economy of Reforms”, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Elias Naumann

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Naumann, E. (2018). Trust in Ageing Societies: Confidence in Pensions Across Europe. In: Ebbinghaus, B., Naumann, E. (eds) Welfare State Reforms Seen from Below. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63652-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63652-8_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63651-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63652-8

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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