Trust in ageing societies: Confidence in pensions across Europe

Abstract

This chapter examines how confidence in pensions across Europe changed between 2004 and 2009 and explores whether problem pressures such as population ageing or the financial crisis led to an erosion of confidence in pensions. Moreover, it examined whether there are some institutional designs and pension reforms that are able to foster trust. The results confirm the general expectation that problem pressures lead to lower confidence in pensions. Moreover, retrenchment and restructuring rather erode than foster confidence in pensions. Finally, at the individual level, a good economic situation is correlated with higher confidence in pensions, whereas unemployment risks and insecure career prospects are linked to lower confidence. The study does not find evidence that political parties or trade unions influence their members’ confidence in pensions.