Conference 2017

The ageing of the population draws increasing attention to retirement and pension policy across industrialized societies. Recent pension system reforms in many countries have strengthened the link between the lifetime employment pattern and the level of pension benefits, making life-course experiences increasingly important for later-life outcomes.

At the same time, post-industrial labour market transformations have led to an increasing incidence of diversified employment patterns. Uncertainties arising from labour market flexibilisation and life-course fragmentation pose major challenges to ageing societies and pension systems in Europe as they potentially intensify heterogeneity of retirement transitions and social inequalities in old-age income.

The tightened link of lifetime employment patterns and pensions has also raised concerns about rising gender and social class inequalities in old-age income.

In which ways do labour market flexibilisation and subsequent life-course effects challenge pension provision and how do pension systems respond to such challenges? This one-day conference, organized by the Finnish Centre for Pensions, will bring together top researchers and professionals to debate this highly topical issue.

Keynote speakers

Anna D’Addio, Senior Policy Analyst, has previous work experience from the OECD, where she worked on pensions. D’Addio has co-authoried leading OECD publications such as Pensions at a Glance and OECD Pensions Outlook.

Joakim Palme, Professor of Political Science, Uppsala University. Palme’s doctoral dissertation Pension Right in Welfare Capitalism was defended in 1990. Since then, he has continued to work on social policy in a comparative perspective.

Traute Meyer, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Southampton. Her research is about the relationship of welfare state institutions and citizens’ social security in Europe, particularly in retirement. She has been one of the editors of the Journal of European Social Policy since 2007.

Dirk Hofäcker, Professor of Quantitative Social Research Methods at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Hofäcker is also an External Fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research. He specializes in comparative welfare and life-course research.

Kathrin Komp, Assistant Professor in Social Gerontology at the University of Helsinki. From a life-course perspective, Komp investigates how population ageing challenges welfare states and societies.

Commentators

Katja Veirto, Senior Advisor at The Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff (Akava) and a member of the labour market organisations’ pension negotiation group.

Jaakko Kiander, Senior Vice President of Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company.

Roope Uusitalo, Professor in Economics of Education at the University of Jyväskylä and chairman of the Finnish Economic Policy Council.

Noora Järnefelt, Senior Researcher at the Finnish Centre for Pensions.

8.30 Breakfast

9.00 Opening words

9:15-11:30 Session: Changing Labour Markets and Old-age Security

• Life course, career breaks and pensions: Issues and challenges in an international perspective
  Anna D’Addio (Senior Policy Analyst)
• From early exit to active ageing – Do employability policies promote an increase in social inequalities in later life?
  Dirk Hofäcker (University of Duisburg-Essen)
• Divided citizenship: the income of intra-EU migrants who retire in their host country
  Traute Meyer (University of Southampton)
• Comments: Katja Veirto (Akava) and Jaakko Kiander (Ilmarinen)

11.30-12:30 Lunch

12.30-14.30 Session: Pension and Retirement from a Life-course Perspective

• Life-course influences on retirement: Effects at the individual-, family- and country-level
  Kathrin Komp (University of Helsinki)
• Retirement and inequality
  Joakim Palme (University of Uppsala)
• Comments: Noora Järnefelt (Finnish Centre for Pensions), Roope Uusitalo (University of Jyväskylä)

14:30 Closing words