Future pension provision is highly controversial; it juxtaposes the challenges of old age security with the exigencies of global finance. Clearly, demography, finance and public accountability are crucial to current political debate. But there are other important issues. The problems of paying for the retirement of the baby boom generation has exposed profound differences in the advanced economies in terms of their financial institutions and infrastructure. Pension security has been re-conceptualised, in part, as an issue of global finance and international comparative advantage bringing with it a re-definition of risk and pension security. This book examines how major continental European and Anglo-American countries are dealing with these pressures, to what extent these responses are beginning to redraw the boundaries between public and private responsibility for pension security, and what the implications of public-private partnerships are for the financial organisation and infrastructure of European and global financial markets, and the nation-based welfare state. The contributors, all involved in policy development in their respective countries, assess the comparative strengths and weaknesses of recent pension initiatives in the light of continuing fiscal constraints and current market instabilities. Using a tight comparative framework, the book questions assumed divisions between states and markets, as new divisions between public and private spheres of pension responsibility require new regulatory machinery to guarantee future security. This book provides a vital reference point in understanding pension security in the 21st century for academics and postgraduates in the social sciences, economics and finance, geography, politics and social policy, policy makers in OECD countries and industry professionals.

About the Author
Gordon L. Clark is the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, Professorial Fellow of the Said Business School, and Faculty Associate of the Institute of Ageing at the University of Oxford, and is a Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford. He is a member of the Panel of Academic Experts of the UK National Association of Pension Funds and a Governor of the Pensions Policy Institute. ; Noel Whiteside is Professor of Comparative Public Policy and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Governance and Public Management at the University of Warwick. She was appointed Zurich Financial Services Fellow in 2000.

Reviews
Review from previous edition Here is the best guide to the turmoil into which European pensions are being plunged. At last, a book that provocatively recasts the debate, written by first-class experts, who expose the complex political and financial dimensions of an issue that, in the long run, is central to all of us in later life. * Rt. Hon. Frank Field , Member of the UK Parliament, Chairman of the Pensions Reform Group *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199285570
Author Gordon L. Clark
Format Paperback
Page Count 308
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 465g
Dimensions(mm) 233mm * 157mm * 18mm