Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

Many European countries are faced with demographic challenges owing to declines in fertility rates as well as a general increase in ageing populations. These demographic developments have significant repercussions on pension reforms. This paper studies the evidence on the participation of ageing populations to the workforce in Europe and examines the consequences of pension policies and different social security systems. We examine microeconomic evidence on pension income for populations across Europe by using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and the Family Resources Survey (FRS). This article shows, and reflects on the consequences of some key changes introduced by European governments to their pension systems. We suggest that the new pension policies will need to tackle the economic challenges of ageing including the issue of adequacy of post-retirement incomes and inequality of pension income.