The Complex Interplay Between Social and Occupational Welfare and the Issue of Inequality

Despite years of debate, most research on the shifting boundaries between ‘public’ and ‘private’ social policy has centered around normative or functional perspectives and has stayed often at a rather theoretical level. The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the development of occupational welfare from a comparative perspective with special attention given to the domain of occupational pensions. In particular it looks at three different issues related to occupational and supplementary pensions. First, how pension systems evolved in the last 30 years in several European countries, in particular in relation to the role of occupational and supplementary pensions. Second, what effects these transformations have had so far, in particular in relation to distributional effects and risks’ shifts. The focus in on the progressive individualisation of old age risks and its effect on inequalities across the working population. Third, how we can explain the diversity in national paths related to the role of occupational pensions.