Private Pensions versus Social Inclusion?: Non-State Provision for Citizens at Risk in Europe

‘This brilliant book makes both a splendid contribution to the pensions debate and represents an important step forward in comparative research on complex policy issues, through its effective use of simulation techniques. . . this book makes a most important contribution to the debate.’ — Michael Hill, Social Policy and Administration

‘The book is a sophisticated and informative analysis of pension or welfare regimes. . . well presented and informative and will be of interest to both students and academics who wish to further their understanding of pension systems and the impact of policies in the cited European countries. . . its methodology will be of interest, particularly on the reading list of undergraduate students or as a teaching text on a specific module.’ — Orla Gough, Ageing and Society

‘Private Pensions versus Social Inclusion? is an excellent book that fills an important gap in the literature on pensions. As governments across Europe expand private pensions as a solution to the financing problems of public pay-as-you-go schemes, there is a large and growing need to investigate the real world effects of these policy shifts. The great strength of this book is its use of different risk biographies to show how the interaction of public and private pension provision influences the retirement income of specific categories of people, not just the “average production worker”. The country studies investigate how different pension schemes influence the retirement income of the most common actually-existing risk profiles. The authors’ investigation of how marriage, child-rearing, and atypical and part-time employment influence pension income is a considerable achievement. This book is indispensable for scholars and practitioners concerned with pension reform.’ — Karen Anderson, Nijmegen University, The Netherlands