The Belgian pension organisation requires a sustained match with its essential social, financial and economic goals. This implies reforms that sustain ageing, avoid repetition of the ageing scenario in the future, and make the pension landscape more transparent and simpler.
| Itinera Papers and Presentations |
Taking inspiration from Finland to increase the employment rate of our seniors
19 November 2008
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In the mid 90s, Finland was far from shining with an extensive use of its mature labour forces. However, by making active ageing one of the priorities of its employment policy, it is at present one of the European leaders regarding the participation of seniors in the labour market. Naïm Cordemans and Jean Hindriks analyse the policies led by Finland and invite Belgian politics to take inspiration from it. |
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Beyond Copernicus: From Confusion to Consensus?: a Roadmap for an better Government-PRESENTATION
04 November 2008
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The 2000 Copernicus reform has faded away before flourishing. Belgium has the highest public spending and public employment in the OECD and still the relative quality and quantity of public services remain disappointing. With so many challenges ahead such as globalisation, population aging, the race for talents, the digital revolution, it is urgent to send a wake-up call for a government that is steering and not rowing. Jean Hindriks makes the diagnosis and suggests several “quick wins”. |
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The State of the Union is lamentable
16 October 2008
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Marc De Vos parodies the annual Belgian “State of the Union” and declares it to be lamentable. The federal budget is shocking. |
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The financial capitalism subject to scathing criticism
03 October 2008
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Banks will have to go back to a human level, what has not been the case for a long time with the modern American banking model. It is also going to affect the wages in the banking sector. Another lesson that we have to draw is that the complete faith in very sophisticated models contains enormous risks. It also brings to light the reasons for which the "nice" Belgian banks are affected by the crisis. |
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Slender, obese or unconstrained? An analysis of public employment in Belgium between 2001 and 2007
29 September 2008
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Public employment did grow by 11.75% in Belgium while the growth of total employment was 6.1%. In Flanders, public employment is bigger than inFlanders How sustainable is this evolution?' |
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| External Papers and Presentations |
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The Itinera Institute offers interested readers a selection of recent and topical publications and presentations from external sources, with a relevant angle towards the Institute’s key issues for Belgium. The selection is updated regularly and readers have the opportunity to stay on track through RSS for each issue. The selection in no way reflects a policy preference on behalf of the institute and is done for information purposes only. Suggestions for publications or presentations are welcome and can be sent to info@itinerainstitute.org
How Is the Economic Turmoil Affecting Older Workers
17 October 2008
| This paper from the Urban Institute examines the impact of the ongoing economic turmoil on retirement savings, home values, and retirement decisions. The slumping stock market, falling housing prices, and weakening economy have serious repercussions for older Americans who are approaching retirement or already retired. More and more older adults are working to bolster their retirement incomes, but the rising unemployment rate limits their prospects. In Belgium, the turmoil may also incite older workers to work later. |
How to increase old workers employment rate?
06 October 2008
| This paper investigates the influences on retirement behavior among older workers. It is found that increases in all categories of wealth (pension, housing equity and other financial wealth) raise the probability of retiring, while good earnings prospects induce continued employment. These results suggest that increasing the employment rate of older workers in Belgium can be done through making work pay more at an old age or increasing pension allocations for those who retire later. |
Ageing, demographic uncertainty and its economic impact
22 September 2008
| Because of ageing, the ratio of retirees to workers is going to increase steadily, which is going to increase pressure on the public finances and the economy in general in the decades to come. Nevertheless, because of the uncertainty regarding future demographic developments, the exact extend of the problem is unknown. This impedes on a country’s budgetary strategy: how much less are we aloud to spend? How will economic uncertainty be affected and how will that affect investments? In this paper; the Dutch Plan bureau makes an attempt to estimate the role of uncertainty and discuss possible outcomes. |
German reforms pay off
22 August 2008
| A recent OECD study found that only Italy and Turkey do worse than Belgium regarding the participation of elder employees on the labour market. So, if Belgium wants to control the costs of the ageing population, activating these employees will be one of the most important challenges. We can learn something from our German neighbours in this respect, as Germany has succeeded in raising the participation of elder employees with 15% in seven years (up to 52%). On top of that, German unemployment fell with 1.2 million between 2005 and 2007. The authors of this paper conclude that these excellent results stem from reforms that made the labour market more flexible – and not solely from the upswing of the economy in the recent years – and point to a number of good practices. A must read for Belgian policy makers in other words. |
Pension system reform: Belgium lags behind most other OECD countries
01 August 2008
| In response to population ageing, pension spending effort is set to increase significantly over the coming decades in OECD countries. But, as this IZA paper recalls, pension policy is challenging and controversial, since it involves long-term decisions in the face of numerous short-term political pressures. Nevertheless, in many OECD countries, much has been done since the early 1990s to make pension systems fit for the future. Belgium appears as an exception: it has not led any major pension reform and still offers many routes for early exit from the labor market. With the baby-boomer generation reaching retirement soon and the perspective of a squeezing labour force, wouldn’t it be high time to act? |
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| • Useful links |
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These links present a selection of reference sources relevant for the specific issue. This selection in no way reflects any policy preference but merely aims to provide interested readers with further information sources. The full list of external links can be consulted under the “links” section in the navigation bar. Suggestions for further links can be emailed to Itinera.
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