Public Opinion on Pension Systems in Europe

Abstract

Various polls reveal that Europeans, even if aware of the looming pension crisis, generally resist pension reforms. In this research report, we show that resistance may be general but it is not uniform. People may oppose reforms but they reject different components of the reform proposals depending on their labor market position, income and age. We analyze the attitudes of nearly 16,000 respondents from the EU-15 countries towards the role of funded pillars, retirement age, the labor market participation of older workers, gender equality and immigration, as well as preferences towards intra- and intergenerational redistribution in the pension systems.

Keywords: pension systems, Europe, pension, pension reforms, ageing, EU, retirement age, retirement, age