Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

Poles (21.2%) than Germans (11.5%) who plan to retire between the age of 60/61-64. 34
However, Germans seem to have internalised the trend toward longer working lives, as the
difference to 1996 results suggests (Engstler 2004), while Poles have since 1999 clung to
their ideal of a low retirement age for all, and a very low for women (CBOS 2007). 35
Interrogated about the reasons for leaving the last job or business, 2/3 of 55-64-year-olds
in the EU named the availability of old-age pensions or their attractive financial conditions
(EC 2007: 79-80; MPiPS 2008: 50; LFS data from 2001, 2005 and 2006). This proves that
voluntary exit prevails and addressing its pull determinants might bring about a change.
Regarding involuntary reasons for exit, in Germany, more persons (ca. 17%) than in Poland
or EU-25 (ca. 12%) have left work because of health reasons. In Poland, dismissals or other
work related problems accounted for 20 per cent of job exits (comp. to ca. 8% in Germany).
The institutional variables included in my analysis are presented with their respective
value in Table 10.
Table 10: Country values on supply-side variables which have a positive impact on the
prolongation of working life
Variable Germany Poland
declared political will to end the early exit trend + +
consistent policy-making – –
low replacement rate (in rel. to OECD average) + –
disability pensions granted solely on medical grounds + +
closed or phasing out early retirement pensions without
+ +
deductions
last early retirement pension (without deductions) will expire
+ _
2015 or earlier
closed unemployment pathway + –
equalisation of retirement ages for men and women +
adaptation of retirement preferences to changed pension rules
+ –
(across several years)
pension calculation honours postponement of retirement + +
opportunities for combining work and partial pension + +
RESULT 10 + / 1 5+ / 6
Explanations: The positive signs indicate that the variable in question applies in the given country
context, the negative signs indicate that the variable does not apply.
Germany has ten positive values (opportunities) and one negative one (barrier), and
Poland has five institutional, supply-side opportunities and six barriers to a prolongation of
working life. On that basis, the institutional part of hypothesis 6 is not supported with regard
to Germany (as the institutional configuration of early exit is, contrary to the hypothesis,
34 An explanation might be the broader age range („below 61“) in the German survey (there is no opportunity
to retire at 59 in any of the two countries) and the temporary distance between those two surveys.
35 An exact comparison is not possible, as no studies on retirement plans were conducted in Poland before
2006.
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