Old-age pensions: Individual or collective responsibility?: An investigation of public opinion across European welfare states

The question of who should be responsible for the provision of retirement income is becoming increasingly important, given the general trend of ageing populations in many European countries. In this article, we study the determinants of popular preferences concerning individual or collective responsibilities in the context of old-age pensions. Using data from the Eurobarometer survey series, we investigate whether - and to what extent - people's views about who should be responsible for the provision of pensions are related to market selectivist and collectivist features of the particular welfare state regimes in Europe. Moreover, the impact of structural characteristics of pension systems and social characteristics of individuals on public preferences is investigated. The cross-national patterns of popular views on responsibilities for the provision of pensions suggest a link to the specifics of welfare state regimes, but not as decisively as one would expect. Structural characteristics of pension systems also appear to be important determinants of public opinion. However, effects of contextual variables are only found when measurements of public opinion are used, which refer to specific institutional arrangements for pension provision. Finally, the results show important divisions among social categories.