Professor%20Bernhard%20Ebbinghaus: List of publications

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The Role of Social Partners in Managing Europe's Great Recession

July 2021

Edited book

Labour hoarding during the pandemic: Assessing the impact of job retention schemes in Europe

June 2021

Internet publication

Job retention schemes have helped Europe to avoid mass unemployment during the Covid-19 pandemic. Bernhard Ebbinghaus and Lukas Lehner write that while these schemes had an immediate impact during lockdown, the future development and long-term consequences of job retention policies remain uncertain.

SBTMR

Inequalities and poverty risks in old age across Europe: The double-edged income effect of pension systems

January 2021

Journal article

Social Policy and Administration

While the sustainability of pension systems facing demographic ageing has been widely discussed, the adequacy of retirement income has often been neglected in current debate. However, considerable poverty and income inequality in old age exists across Europe. Using recent EU‐SILC data (2017/18), the comparative analysis of poverty rates and income inequality in old age shows important cross‐national variations that need to be seen in context of market‐related inequalities but also the specific pension system. Beveridge basic security is not always capable of effectively reducing poverty despite the explicit goal to do so. In addition, private funded pensions may generate social inequality. Some contributory Bismarckian systems are better suited to reduce poverty, but given their focus on status maintenance also reproduce inequality. Poverty rates are low due to encompassing basic pensions in Dutch and some Nordic multipillar systems and in core Central and Eastern European countries. Bismarckian pensions such as in Germany are generating some inequality and medium level of poverty, while France and some Southern European countries perform better on poverty but reproduce larger inequalities. Beveridge systems such as in the United Kingdom and Switzerland with rather meagre basic multipillar systems have relatively medium to high poverty risks. In addition, the Baltic countries and new EU member states in the periphery have the highest poverty rates across Europe. The analysis shows that the minimum income provision of public pension systems matters most for poverty risks, while the overall pension architecture has an impact on reproducing inequality in old age acquired during working life.

pension systems, poverty, Europe, inequality, old age

Uncertain Futures of Post-Brexit Pensions: Three Paradoxical Implications

November 2020

Chapter

Whither Social Rights in (Post-)Brexit Europe?

Post-Brexit pension futures in the UK and the wider Europe will change as a consequence of the UK having left the EU. British state pensions might be more negatively affected by the economic effects of a Brexit without a comprehensive trade agreement. For social Europe, the UK leaving the table will weaken the forces behind marketising pension reforms. Finally, the City’s pro-Brexit ﬁnancial interests will push further for less regulated ﬁnancialisation of pensions, making a large share of British retirement income subject to more volatility. Departing from a social Europe that put more brakes on funded pension capitalism, Brexit has thus made UK pension futures less, not more, secure.

Brexit, European Union, United Kingdom

The Legitimacy of Public Pensions in an Ageing Europe: Changes in Subjective Evaluations and Policy Preferences, 2008–2016

August 2020

Chapter

Welfare State Legitimacy in Times of Crisis and Austerity

4407 Policy and Administration, 4408 Political Science, 44 Human Society

Changing work and welfare: unemployment and labour market policies

July 2020

Chapter

Handbook on Society and Social Policy

Accumulation or Absorption? Changing Disparities of Household Non-employment in Europe During the Great Recession

February 2020

Journal article

Socio-Economic Review

This comparative study analyses the impact of the Great Recession on household non-employment across Europe since 2008. We use the EU-SILC (2007 to 2014) for a shift-share analysis that de-composes annual variations in household non-employment in 30 European countries. Investigating whether job-loss is absorbed or accumulated by households, we break down non-employment vari-ations to changes in individual non-employment, household compositions, and polarization. We find that jobless households increased since 2008, especially in crisis countries. There is no evi-dence for widespread absorption of individual non-employment in families or multi-person house-holds. Instead, household dynamics and unequal distribution of non-employment leads to further risk accumulation within households during the crisis. Paradoxically, this pattern occurs in those crisis countries known for their traditional household structures and less accommodating welfare systems which have relied thus far on families to absorb employment risks. The impact of the crisis has aggravated household disparities in joblessness.

employment, Europe

Pension reforms and old age inequalities in Europe: From old to new social risks?

January 2020

Conference paper

Abstract Book: 14th ESA Conference: Europe and Beyond: Boundaries, Barriers and Belonging |

LIS Working Paper Series

Poverty in Old Age

October 2019

Working paper

LIS Working Paper Series

While the financial sustainability of pension systems has been high on reform agendas, the adequacy of retirement incomes has only recently come into focus. This chapter analyses old-age poverty from a comparative and longitudinal perspective using repeated waves of cross-sectional micro-level income data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS). We focus on high-income OECD countries that experienced demographic ageing and substantial pension reforms since the mid-1980s, and analyse old age poverty in terms of relative income positions and purchasing capacity. Overall, there has been a secular trend towards a decline in old age poverty, which has converged towards the poverty rates observed in the working age population. However, since ongoing pension reforms in several countries have reduced public benefits, fostered prefunded savings, augmented the retirement age, and strengthened the link between contribution histories and old-age incomes, we identify population subgroups that have difficulties in gaining sufficient pension credits or savings into individual pension plans during their working lives to escape poverty in old age, including women, migrants, and those with lower education. We also present examples of poverty trends across synthetic cohorts in old age. Overall, we observe that more recent cohorts are better protected against poverty in old age compared to cohorts that were born longer ago.

Old age, Poverty

Multipillarisation remodelled: the role of interest organizations in British and German pension reforms

April 2019

Journal article

Journal of European Public Policy

Privatisierung und Vermarktlichung der Altersvorsorge: Eingetrübte Aussichten des deutschen Mehrsäulenmodells

November 2018

Journal article

WSI-Mitteilungen

Conclusion: The Influence from Below—How Organized Interests and Public Attitudes Shape Welfare State Reforms in Europe

January 2018

Chapter

Welfare State Reforms Seen from Below

4407 Policy and Administration, 4408 Political Science, 44 Human Society

Institutionalismus, historischer

January 2018

Chapter

Europasoziologie

4410 Sociology, 44 Human Society

Welfare State Reforms Seen from Below

January 2018

Book

The Popularity of Pension and Unemployment Policies Revisited: The Erosion of Public Support in Britainand Germany

December 2017

Chapter

Welfare State Reforms Seen from Below: Comparing Public Attitudes and Organized Interests in Britain and Germany

This chapter provides a comparative analysis of the long-term development of public attitudes towards pension and unemployment policies in Great Britain and Germany (1985–2013). The British and German welfare states are still rather popular. Public support for government responsibility for the elderly is stronger than for the unemployed. Moreover, a trade-off in expenditure preferences favours spending on pensions over spending on unemployment benefits. Claims toward an increased polarization between generations, union/non-union members and left/right supporters seem overblown. Welfare reforms have not led to a counter-reaction but the continued reform pressures have led to a partial erosion of public welfare state support.

SBTMR

Class, union, or party allegiance? Comparing pension reform preferences in Britain and Germany

November 2017

Chapter

Welfare State Reforms Seen from Below: Comparing Public Attitudes and Organized Interests in Britain and Germany

This chapter explores to what degree public opinion, particularly specific social groups including social classes, retirees, members of trade unions, and supporters of political parties, defend the status quo or are willing to support reforms. It distinguishes two major dimensions of pension-specific attitudes, retrenchment and redistribution. Using data from the 2008 European Social Survey, the study compares two countries with different pension systems, organized interests, and party systems: Britain and Germany. Our results show pronounced cross-national differences in attitudes towards the redistributive character of the pensions system but less variation with regard to retrenchment of pension benefits. Political affiliations show also more variation than social classes, indicating that ideological alignment is more pronounced than social class.

SBTMR

Introduction: Analysing Organized Interests and Public Opinion Towards Welfare Reforms

November 2017

Chapter

Welfare State Reforms Seen from Below: Comparing Public Attitudes and Organized Interests in Britain and German

SBTMR

Making Deservingness of the Unemployed Conditional: Changes in Public Support for the Conditionality of Unemployment Benefits

September 2017

Chapter

Social Legitimacy of Targeted Welfare:Attitudes to Welfare Deservingness

Since the 1990s, stricter conditions for the (long‐term) unemployed to receive benefits have been on the ‘activation’ agenda. However, policymakers are constrained in their reform efforts by the economic and fiscal situation, the pre‐existing institutional contexts and public opinion. This cross‐national and longitudinal study investigates whether the social legitimacy of benefit obligations for the unemployed is affected by the changing economic situation and the varying institutional context. We use data from the European Values Survey, a repeated cross‐sectional survey that was conducted in 1990, 1999 and 2008 in 23 European countries. Support for the conditionality of unemployment benefits is measured with an item that asks whether people who are unemployed should have to take any job available. We find that the main economic indicators – economic growth and the unemployment rate – are significantly related to support for conditionality. People living in wealthier countries are more likely to be in favour of conditionality, whereas a high unemployment rate reduces such support. With regard to institutional features, we find some support for the assumption that people in welfare states with more generous social policies prefer stricter conditionality for access, in order to protect the generous benefits against any misuse.

SBTMR

Paid Work Beyond Pension Age: Comparative Perspectives

July 2017

Journal article

JOURNAL OF SOCIAL POLICY

The Role of Trade Unions in Pension Policymaking and Private Pension Governance in Europe

May 2017

Chapter

New Pension Mix in Europe: Recent Reforms, Their Distributional Effects and Political Dynamics

Trade unions, Europe, Pension reform

Demografische Alterung und Reformen der Alterssicherung in Europa – Probleme der ökonomischen, sozialen und politischen Nachhaltigkeit

September 2015

Journal article

KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie

44 Human Society, 4407 Policy and Administration, 4408 Political Science, 4403 Demography, 10 Reduced Inequalities

Reforming Welfare States and Changing Capitalism

August 2015

Chapter

The Changing Worlds and Workplaces of Capitalism

Pushed out prematurely? Comparing objectively forced exits and subjective assessments of involuntary retirement across Europe

April 2015

Journal article

Research in Social Stratification and Mobility

Given the efforts in raising the statutory pension age in an aging Europe, this cross-national analysis investigates constrained retirement from a comparative perspective. Based on a conceptualization of retirement transitions as a multi-faceted phenomenon, the study distinguishes objective (external) constraints and the subjective self-assessment of involuntary retirement. Exploiting two survey items from the fifth round of the European Social Survey (ESS Round 5, 2010/2011), we examine which workers were objectively forced to retire due to economic or health reasons as well as which workers subjectively evaluate their retirement as involuntary as they would have wished to work longer. Using multilevel modeling, the study investigates the impact of national context conditions on both the individual risk to be objectively forced to terminate work and the subjective perception of retirement as occurring too early. We analyze institutional factors such as statutory pension ages and pension generosity, but also explore the role of structural factors such as unemployment and health. At the individual level, the empirical analysis reveals that objectively forced exits and subjective involuntariness do not always overlap. Ojectively forced exits are more readily explained by socio-economic characteristics like social class and unemployment experience. At the macro level, there are considerable cross-national variations that cannot be explained by compositional factors only. Relevant predictors of international differences in constrained retriement include early retirement options, statutory pension conditions, unemployment rates, labor market regulation and life expectancy.

Early exit from work, SBTMR, International comparison, Active aging, Involuntary retirement, Multi-level analysis

Karl Hinrichs and Matteo Jessoula (eds.) (2012), Labour Market Flexibility and Pension Reforms: Flexible Today, Secure Tomorrow? Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. £63.00, pp. 280, hbk.

April 2015

Journal article

Journal of Social Policy

4404 Development Studies, 44 Human Society

The privatization and marketization of pensions in Europe: a double transformation facing the crisis

March 2015

Journal article

European Policy Analysis

In response to the demographic challenges and fiscal constraints, many European welfare states have moved toward the privatization and marketization of pensions in order to improve their financial sustainability. The privatization of retirement income responsibility has led to a shift from dominantly public pensions to a multi-pillar architecture with growing private pillars composed of personal, firm-based, or collectively negotiated pension arrangements. At the same time, marketization has led to the introduction and expansion of prefunded pension savings based on financial investments as well as stronger reliance of market-logic principles in the remaining public pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pensions. However, there are also important cross-national variations in the speed, scope, and structural outcome of the privatization and marketization of European pension systems. Liberal market economies, but also some coordinated market economies (the Netherlands and Switzerland) as well as the Nordic countries have embraced multi-pillar strategies earlier and more widely, while the Bismarckian pensions systems and the post-socialist transition countries of Eastern Europe have been belated converts. The recent financial market and economic crisis, however, indicates that the double transformation may entail short-term problems and long-term uncertainties about the social and political sustainability of these privatized and marketized multi-pillar strategies

SBTMR, pension system, marketization, multi-pillar system, transformation, privatization, crisis

Familien am Rande der Erwerbsgesellschaft

January 2015

Journal article

Machtressourcentheorie und Korporatismusansatz

January 2015

Chapter

Handbuch Policy-Forschung

Welfare Retrenchment

January 2015

Chapter

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences

4407 Policy and Administration, 4408 Political Science, 44 Human Society

Methode

July 2014

Journal article

Soziologische Revue

Mitgliederrückgang und Organisationsstrategien deutscher Gewerkschaften

January 2014

Chapter

Handbuch Gewerkschaften in Deutschland

Reversing early retirement in advanced welfare economies a paradigm shift to overcome push and pull factors

December 2013

Journal article

Comparative Population Studies

Recent reform efforts of advanced welfare states have attempted to reverse trends in early retirement and increase the statutory retirement age. This paradigm shift often occurred against the protest of unions, fi rms and their employees. As a consequence of expanding welfare states and as response to economic challenges since the 1970s early exit from work has become a widespread practice. Early retirement has been part of Continental Europe's welfare without work problem, while the Scandinavian welfare states, the Anglophone liberal economies and the Japanese welfare society were able to maintain higher levels of employment for older workers. Since the 1990s, an international consensus to reverse early exit from work emerged among international organisations and national policy experts. Based on a comparative historical analysis of selected OECD countries, this study analyses the cross-national variations in the institutionalisation of early exit regimes and its recent reversal using macro-indictors on early exit trends and stylised information on institutional arrangements. Comparing the interaction of social policy and economic institutions, it reviews the cross-national differences in welfare state "pull" and economic "push" factors that have contributed to early exit from work and discusses the likely impact of welfare retrenchment and assesses the importance of "retention" factors such as activation policies for decreasing early exit from work. © Federal Institute for Population Research 2013 - All rights reserved.

Institutional Change in Advanced Democracies

June 2013

Dataset

Global Social Policy Digest

December 2012

Journal article

Global Social Policy

44 Human Society

Governing pension fund capitalism in times of uncertainty

December 2012

Journal article

Global Social Policy

44 Human Society

Securing pensions for the next fifty years: Varieties of pension governance under pressure: Funded pensions in Western Europe

December 2012

Journal article

CESifo DICE Report

Shifting responsibilities in Western European pension systems: What future for social models?

December 2012

Journal article

Global Social Policy

4407 Policy and Administration, 4408 Political Science, 44 Human Society, Generic health relevance

Varieties of Pension Governance under Pressure: Funded Pensions in Western Europe

December 2012

Journal article

DICE

Varieties of Pension Governance under Pressure: Funded Pensions in Western Europe

December 2012

Journal article

DICE

H550, J260, Gesetzliche Rentenversicherung, Private Altersvorsorge, Pensionskasse, Wirtschaftliche Sicherheit, Finanzkrise, Westeuropa

Europe’s Transformations Towards a Renewed Pension System

October 2012

Chapter

The Politics of the New Welfare State

James W. Russell (2011), Double Standard: Social Policy in Europe and the United States, 2nd edn. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. £16.95, pp. 195, pbk.

April 2012

Journal article

Journal of Social Policy

4407 Policy and Administration, 44 Human Society

The role of trade unions in European pension reforms: From ‘old’ to ‘new’ politics?

December 2011

Journal article

European Journal of Industrial Relations

35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 3505 Human Resources and Industrial Relations, 44 Human Society, 4407 Policy and Administration, 4408 Political Science

Introduction: Causes, consequences and cures of union decline

June 2011

Journal article

European Journal of Industrial Relations

3801 Applied Economics, 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 38 Economics, 3505 Human Resources and Industrial Relations, 44 Human Society, 4407 Policy and Administration

Social capital, ‘Ghent’ and workplace contexts matter: Comparing union membership in Europe

June 2011

Journal article

European Journal of Industrial Relations

3505 Human Resources and Industrial Relations, 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 44 Human Society

Preface

May 2011

Chapter