Research Seminars

4 February 2020, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (local time)
Finnish Centre for Pensions, Kirjurinkatu 3, Helsinki

Have recent pension reforms reinforced or mitigated inequalities rising from labour markets and different life courses? Why does non-standard work raise concerns about pension adequacy? How have recent pension reforms, in general, succeeded in ensuring sustainable and adequate pension provision?

Programme

9:00 Part I: Pension reforms and life course inequalities: Insights from research
Opening words

Karl Hinrichs (University of Bremen): Recent Pension Reforms in Europe: More Challenges, New Directions
Bernhard Ebbinghaus (University of Oxford): Reproducing labour market inequalities in old age pension income across Europe

Comments: Seija Ilmakunnas (University of Jyväskylä) and Traute Meyer (University of Southampton)

10:15  Coffee break

10:45  Part II: The OECD Pensions at a Glance 2019 Report – Recent pension reforms, non-standard forms of work and pensions

Hervé Boulhol (OECD): Recent pension reforms
Maciej Lis (OECD): Non-standard forms of work and pensions

Panel discussion: How does Finland’s pension system compare with other OECD countries?
Hervé Boulhol (OECD), Suvi-Anne Siimes (The Finnish Pension Alliance TELA), Minna Helle (Technologies Finland), Teemu Muhonen (Helsingin Sanomat), Ilkka Kaukoranta (The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK), Hannu Ijäs (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health) and Elisa Gebhard (The Finnish National Youth Council Allianssi)

13:00  Seminar ends

Tuesday 11 June 2019

During the past decades, many countries have implemented pension reforms and introduced changes in their retirement age in order to delay retirement and extend working lives.

This seminar shows us how effective the incentives of pension reforms have been in Finland and the United Kingdom over the years. Further, it presents an eight-year follow-up study about retirement plans, intentions and the actual retirement.

Programme

Jon Gruber (MIT), Ohto Kanninen (Labour Institute for Economic Research), Satu Nivalainen (Finnish Centre for Pension), Terhi Ravaska (Labour Institute for Economic Research), Roope Uusitalo (University of Helsinki): The effect of relabeling and Incentives on Retirement: Evidence from a 2005 Finnish Pension Reform

Ricky Kanabar (University of Bath): The effect of an increased UK State Pension Age on expected working life of employees

Satu Nivalainen (Finnish Centre for Pension): From plans to actions? Retirement thoughts, intentions and actual retirement: An eight-year follow-up of the Finnish Quality of Working Life Survey

Commentator:

Ilkka Kaukoranta (SAK, The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions)

Thursday 23 May 2019, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. (local time UTC+3)
Finnish Centre for Pensions

Programme

13:00 Part I: Life courses and inequalities in pensions – Results from the German LeA-study

In Germany, like in many other countries, working careers and family biographies are getting less standardized. How do changing careers, family patterns and migration challenge pension accumulation and old-age income security? In the first part of this research seminar, Dina Frommert from Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund presents results from the recent German LeA-study.

Speaker: Dina Frommert (DRV Bund)

Commentator: Susan Kuivalainen (Finnish Centre for Pensions)

14:30 Coffee break

16:00 Part II: Pension reforms in Germany

In the second part of the seminar, Dina Frommert discusses recent and planned reforms of the German pension system. In the ‘Pension Pact’, which came into force in January 2019, both the replacement and the contribution level of public pensions were stabilized for years to come, pension benefits for families with children were increased and disability pensions were improved. Introducing a scheme that provides a minimum pension and incorporates the self-employed in the compulsory pension insurance scheme are the next big reform issues.

Speaker: Dina Frommert (DRV Bund)

Commentators: Niku Määttänen (ETLA) and Antti Mielonen (Finnish Centre for Pensions)

5 September 2018 at 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. (local time)

Many countries, including Finland, have implemented pension reforms in the context of demographic aging. The aim of the reforms has been to improve the financial sustainability of pension systems.

Reforms have raised the retirement ages and abolished early routes to retirement. At the same time, they have made pension systems more flexible with the aim to promote later-life employment and to extend working lives.

At our seminar, we will discuss recent research on the effect pension reforms have had on the retirement age and employment rates of older workers.

Following the seminar is a meeting concerning the implementation of Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement (SHARE) in Finland.

Keynote speaker:
Axel Börsch-Supan (Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy): Dangerous Flexibility – Retirement Reforms Reconsidered, Empirical Results from Nine OECD Countries

Commentators:
Mikko Kautto (Finnish Centre for Pension): Flexibility and Retirement – Experiences from Finland
Tuulia Hakola-Uusitalo (Ministry of Finance): Research on Flexibility – What Type of Lessons for Policy?

Chair:
Noora Järnefelt (Finnish Centre for Pension)

Coffee break

Upcoming Waves and Financing of SHARE in Finland
3:00 – 4:30 p.m. (local time)

Axel Börsch-Supan is the managing director of SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe). The research project covers 28 European countries, and it aims to tackle challenges of population ageing by providing cross-national micro data.

SHARE has been running in Finland since 2016. Funding for the future waves in Finland in 2019 and 2021 has not been secured yet. Prof. Börsch-Supan will start by presenting briefly the significance of SHARE in Finland, followed by a discussion about the content of SHARE data and the possibilities for national funding.

The meeting is open for everyone interested in the future and financing of SHARE in Finland.

22 March 2018 at 1:30 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

The seminar presented recent and on-going research from Finland and Norway on people’s pension knowledge. The seminar showed how information campaigns influence knowledge, attitudes and retirement plans. It also outlined how the potential impact of information gains persist over time.

• Olli Kangas (Kela): Information and Legitimacy: Attitudes on the Finnish 2017 Pension Reform
• Henning Finseraas: (ISF) The Short and Long run Effects of Information about the Pension System
• Sanna Tenhunen & Satu Nivalainen (Finnish Centre for Pensions): Retirement Plans and Knowledge of the Incentives in Pension System among 54-62-year-old Finns
• Commentator: Reija Hyvärinen (Keva)

Presentations at research seminar on 22 March 2018