Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

National opinion polls reflect the development of retirement preferences in both countries.
In Poland, retirement preferences have changed back and forth between 1999 and 2003.
Between 1999 and 2002, the idea of a lower retirement age for men and women than the
current statutory retirement age has become less popular, only to regain ground in 2003
(CBOS 2007: 4). Quite differently, Germans seem to have adapted their individual plans to
changed statutory retirement conditions (Engstler 2004: 10). I therefore suspect that also
future legislative measures to prolong working life will meet with greater acceptance in
Germany than in Poland.
2. Theoretical and Methodological Approach
The decision whether older workers achieve high employment rates and exit at the
standard retirement age can be studied at national level, at firm level and at individual level.
The decisions and outcomes at firm level are visualised in Figure 1. The models are based
on the framework of actor-centred institutionalism (Mayntz/Scharpf 1995; Scharpf 1997).
7