Working Conditions and Health Among Italian Ageing Workers

In many European countries requirements for retirement have been tightened, causing an increase in work participation of older workers, in spite their potentially poorer health may limit their work ability. This study aimed at assessing the diffusion of health problems and exposure to unfavorable working conditions among ageing workers in two Italian surveys, as well as comparing them with those observed in the same surveys conducted before the 2011 Italian pension reform tightening the normal retirement age. The 2013 National Health Survey (NHS) and Labour Force Survey (LFS) were employed to assess the prevalence of poor perceived health, health conditions and functional limitations, and of exposure to physical, psychosocial and organization factors at work, among 60–64 years workers. Poisson regression models were used to estimate Prevalence Ratios of health outcomes and unfavorable working conditions in the two surveys, compared to data from the 2005 (NHS) and 2007 (LFS) corresponding surveys, respectively. Among both men and women, approximately one quarter had at least one physical disorder or functional limitations and 15% poor mental health. Exposure to different ergonomic factors (15–30%) and working during unsocial hours (19%) were particularly diffused. A significant increase in the prevalence of functional limitations and of working at night or during unsocial hours was found in 2013, compared to corresponding data from 2005 and 2007, respectively. Our results indicate that exposure to ergonomic and organizational hazards should be reduced among ageing workers, to avoid decreased work ability, health damage or early exit from the labour market.

The Impacts of Population Aging on China’s Economy

The Chinese economy had an extraordinary average GDP growth rate of 8.50 percent from 1980 to 2018. However, the implementation of one-child policy in the late 1970s has depressed the total fertility rate to below the replacement rate since 1992. China thus experienced an increasing composition of older populations in the past three decades, which puts pressure on Chinese economic growth and makes its eye-catching economic growth potentially unsustainable. This study develops an overlapping generations (OLG) model to investigate the impacts of this demographic transition in the Chinese economy. This study conducts six policy reform exercises to examine measures that could improve the sustainability of fiscal and pension systems. The simulation results indicate that a mild tax increase on either wage income or consumption does not improve the fiscal stance but creates distortionary effects on saving and consumption behaviors. Of the pension reform measures considered, the combination of extending the mandatory retirement age and cutting the replacement ratio offers the most significant improvement to pension sustainability. However, increasing the contribution rate of the working-age population has the least effect on pension sustainability and a noticeable distortionary effect on the consumption ratio and saving rate.

A Historical Perspective on Ageing and Capability

This chapter discusses the value of a capability approach in historical research on older people. Historians are generally focused on studying continuity and change over time. Their research often aims at explaining how and why certain phenomena appear and take different shapes. Capability is a way of capturing an individual’s ability to live a meaningful life, or a life that they perceive as good. A modern analytical tool such as the capability approach can be used for visualising historical patterns, even though individuals’ values of well-being change over time. In that sense, historical studies of individuals’ capabilities, or functions, can add another perspective to this theoretical framework.Old newspapers, biographies, diaries, letters, novels and government reports make it possible to understand which capabilities individuals and societies have valued for older citizens at different times. The meaning of functions differs over time and is dependent on several factors, such as gender and economic conditions, as well as social and civil status. This also means that conditions for a phenomenon such as retirement change over time, but they also differ depending on people’s previous life conditions. In this article, we explore these things using two different examples. Firstly, we discuss how Selma Lagerlöf, a woman with high social status, arranged for her retirement. The second example shows how women with low economic status struggled to retire at the time when universal pension reform was being implemented in Sweden.

The main priorities of using and managing the funds of the unified accumulative pension fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan

The purpose of the article is the formation of an optimal model of pension provision of citizens in accordance with the modern market economy on the most important issues arising in the accumulative pension system of the Republic of Kazakhstan, strengthening its theoretical, methodological and legal foundations. The Republic of Kazakhstan was one of the first CIS countries to start pension reform 24 years ago. The main goal is to establish the personal responsibility of each citizen of Kazakhstan for his financial situation when reaching retirement age. In this regard, when implementing the reform, the state policy envisaged a gradual transition from the application of the principle of cooperation between generations to independent savings in pension funds. The pension reform in Kazakhstan was carried out optimally and the World Bank recognized it as one of the most successful reforms. The accumulative pension system plays a significant role in the life of the country, the development of the stock market and the improvement of the national economy, the distribution of long-term investments at the expense of domestic savings to increase the competitiveness of the country. In order to become one of the 30 effectively developed countries of the world, the state has created high standards of living for the citizens of Kazakhstan by improving the level and quality of pension provision. For this, one of the most important components of the economic and social conditions of the population is that accumulative pension funds in Kazakhstan should develop further, and the pension system should be competitive. The main pillar of the accumulative pension system in the country is the improvement of the accumulative pension fund and effective pension provision, which forms the basis of the future population. In the conditions of modern globalization and rapid development of financial markets, the financial position of the accumulative pension fund, a participant in the financial market, and its effective functioning are in the first place.

The Puzzle of Dutch Welfare Solidarity and the Politics of Old Age Pension Reform (1945-1975)

During the first three decades of the post-war period, the Netherlands developed a system of welfare provision that by most standards belonged to the most equitable and solidaristic in the world. It did so under the patronage of Christian democratic governments, which are generally viewed as being predisposed to rejecting solidaristic welfare reform. The purpose of this article is to explain why the Dutch Christian democrats came to adopt such a solidaristic welfare stance during the formative post-war period of welfare state expansion. Rather than attributing this stance to electoral or strategic considerations, this article focuses on the formative role of the Christian democratic labour union movement in persuading these parties to gradually adopt a more solidaristic welfare stance.In de eerste drie decennia van de naoorlogse periode ontwikkelde Nederland een stelsel van sociale voorzieningen dat naar de meeste maatstaven tot het meest rechtvaardige en solidaristische ter wereld behoorde. Dit stelsel kwam tot stand met steun van christendemocratische regeringen, waarvan over het algemeen wordt aangenomen dat zij geneigd zijn solidaristische welzijnshervormingen af te wijzen. Het doel van dit artikel is om te verklaren waarom de Nederlandse christendemocraten een solidaristische welvaartskoers zijn gaan varen in de naoorlogse periode, een tijdvak dat gekenmerkt werd door uitbreiding van de verzorgingsstaat. In plaats van deze houding toe te schrijven aan electorale of strategische overwegingen, richt dit artikel zich op de christendemocratische vakbeweging. Deze speelde een invloedrijke rol in het overreden van christendemocratische partijen om geleidelijk een meer solidaristische welvaartshouding aan te nemen.

Socio-Demographic Processes in the Russian Arctic in Statistical Assessments and Population Surveys

Specificity of modern social processes determines close attention of the global scientific community to socio-demographic processes in the Arctic. The article examines systemic and recent social and de-mographic processes in the Russian Arctic, determined both by the immanent specifics of the Arctic (generating active migration processes, the phenomenon of city-forming enterprises, etc.) and by the all-Russian social reforms (in particular, the pension reform). The methodological peculiarity of the article is to present socio-demographic processes through the analysis of quantitative indicators, as well as through the reflection in the consciousness of the Arctic population (highlighting workers of city-forming enterprises) of modern factors of influence that determine their attitude to residence and work in the Arctic. The analysis of the results of settlement processes in the Arctic regions has been carried out, indicating an unstable stabilization of the population situation in the Nenets, Chukotka and Yamalo-Nenets okrugs, provided by various factors; it revealed the preservation of the negative trend of population decline in the Murmansk Oblast. Statistical analysis and surveys have revealed socio-demographic problems caused by the pension reform, which can aggravate the problem of the outflow of working-age population from the Arctic territories. It was found out that the reaction of city-forming enterprise employees differs from the "all-Arctic" reaction of the population on the grounds confirming the stabilizing role of city-forming enterprises in socio-demographic processes in the Arctic.

Pensions, Ageing and Social Security Research: Literature Review and Global Trends

Pension systems are one of the fundamental pillars of the welfare state. The ageing of the population caused by longer life expectancy and low birth rates has led to a crisis in the public pension system in developed countries. Changes for the system’s sustainability are necessary, and the scientific literature on the subject is abundant, especially in recent years. This article aims to carry out a bibliometric analysis of the research carried out to date, highlighting, in turn, future lines of research. The study was carried out on a total of 1287 articles published from 1936 to 2021 and found in the Scopus database. The SciMAT, VOSviewer, and Datawrapper tools were used to analyse the most important articles, authors, countries, and institutions by volume of production and citations, as well as the relationships between them. Likewise, the most important keywords and their evolution over time were highlighted, obtaining the main focus of the research. In addition to the general analysis, a specific study was carried out in the area of Mathematics. The results show that the leading countries are the United Kingdom, the USA, and the Netherlands. On the other hand, the lead subject area in which these articles have been published is Economics, Econometrics, and Finance. The research trends are sustainability, pension reform related to ageing, and pension insurance.

Structural-Functional Analysis of a Pension as an Object of Pension Legal Relations

The pension system of the Russian Federation has undergone three fundamental reforms. In 1992, the first law on pensions began to operate in Russia, which significantly differed from the Union legislation. In 2002, insurance principles were introduced into the pension system, which led to a change in the entire system of pension coverage for persons working under an employment contract, including new types of pension coverage. In 2015, there was a significant reform of the existing insurance pension system, which in its significance is no less significant than all the previous changes in the pension legislation. Each pension reform changed the procedure for calculating pensions, legislatively establishing a new pension formula for determining the amount of a pension. Along with this, the structural elements of pensions also changed. At the same time, it is possible to identify similar features in the structural elements of pensions assigned in different periods, but at the functional level. The totality of similar functions of pension elements allows us to talk about certain patterns in the development of the pension provision of the Russian Federation. So, despite the change in the nature of pensions from state to insurance, the essence of pensions, in general, remained the same. Moreover, the essence and functions of the elements of state and insurance pensions are largely the same. The pension is a social security payment with a complex structure. The presence of a structure, the presence of elements and connections between them, indicates a complex function performed by a pension. This function cannot be reduced to a compensatory function, a function of assistance or a function of substitution of earnings. There is an element in the pension structure that reflects past employment. In pensions of different nature, this happens in different ways: wages are taken into account (in state pensions) or insurance contributions (in compulsory pension insurance pensions). In addition, the pension should include an element that increases the amount of the pension in the presence of special circumstances of a subjective nature: disabled dependents, the need for constant outside care. In pensions for state pension provision, such an element is supplements to pensions; in compulsory pension insurance, this function is performed by a fixed payment. Social pensions and funded pension are one-component payments, which raises questions not only about the nature of these pensions, but also about their essence.