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13/03/2008 : Workshop "Extending the Working life of Older Workers: A European Success Story?"

The aim of the workshop was to review the recent work on the effectiveness of pension reforms on participation rates and to discuss possible complementarities between pension and labour market reforms.

Brussels, 13 March 2008


The performance of the European labour markets has improved considerably during the second half of the 1990s. The unemployment rate gradually fell, while the overall employment and the participation rate increased. These improvements were mainly driven by the female and the older workers' employment and participation rates. While socio-economic and demographic changes played a role, to some extent these developments occurred in response to a broad set of reforms implemented in the period.

This workshop presented recent work on issues related to the older workers' participation rates.  The workshop reviewed different measurement of the incentives to retire, discussed the role played by pension and early retirement reforms, and discussed the political economy of pension and labour market reforms with examples from recent Member States' experience.

Programme


The workshop was organised in three sessions:
  1. The impact of pension reforms on the decisions to retire and the participation rates;
  2. Extending working life;
  3. Complementarities between labour market reforms and pension reforms.

See detailed Programme English textpdf(12 kB) Choose translations of the previous link 


Workshop documents
WELCOMING AND OPENING REMARKS - Marco Buti, Deputy Director General, European Commission, DG Economic and Financial Affairs
SESSION 1: The impact of pension reforms on the incentives to retire and
participation rates
Chair: Marco Buti, Deputy Director General for Economic and
Financial Affairs
Edward Whitehouse, OECD, “Modeling Pension Entitlements and incentives to retire”
Alfonso Arpaia, European Commission, DG ECFIN: "Assessing the impact of pension reforms in the EU: a diff-in-diff approach" - paper English textpdf(462 kB) Choose translations of the previous link  - presentation English textpdf(345 kB) Choose translations of the previous link 
David Stanton, Chair of the Indicators Sub-Group of the Social Protection Committee, "Assessing the adequacy and sustainability of pensions on the basis of indicators of the Open Method of Coordination" - paper English textpdf(68 kB) Choose translations of the previous link  - presentation English textpdf(61 kB) Choose translations of the previous link 
Discussant: Ruud A. de Mooij, CPB, Erasmus University, Oxford.
SESSION 2: Extending Working Life
Chair: Henri Bogaert, Bureau Federal du Plan and Chairman, Ageing
Working Group
Vincenzo Galasso, IGIER, Università Bocconi, CSEF, and CEPR "Postponing Retirement: the Political Push of Aging" - paper English textpdf(151 kB) Choose translations of the previous link  - presentation English textpdf(322 kB) Choose translations of the previous link 
Olivier Bontout, European Commission, DG EMPL "Experience with Pension Reforms in Europe" - presentation English textpdf(2 MB) Choose translations of the previous link 
Ray Barrell, NIESR, "Extending working life?" - paper English textpdf(356 kB) Choose translations of the previous link  - presentation English textpdf(351 kB) Choose translations of the previous link 
Discussant: Michael Neugart, WZB - presentation English textpdf(100 kB) Choose translations of the previous link 
SESSION 3: Complementarities between Labour Market reforms and Pension reforms
Chair: Xavier Prats Monne, Director, DG Employment Social Affairs
and Equal Opportunitie
Agar Brugiavini, Università di Venezia Ca' Foscari, "Labour and pension reforms in Italy" - presentation English textpdf(310 kB) Choose translations of the previous link 
Gérard Cornilleau, OFCE and SciencePo "Labour and pension reforms: the experience of countries with high older workers' participation rates"
Hans Fehr, University of Wuerzburg "The German experience" - paper English textpdf(114 kB) Choose translations of the previous link  - presentation English textpdf(397 kB) Choose translations of the previous link 
Discussant: Georg Fischer DG Employment Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities - presentation English textpdf(96 kB) Choose translations of the previous link 
Please note that for external papers, copyright rests with the author(s).

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