A quick guide to one more Greek pension reform

Greek ruins tend to be picturesque, blending destroyed architectural fragments with dramatic settings. The succession of columns, marbles and pediments, after a few repetitions, becomes confusing; only the tourist with the good guidebook finds her way around. She does not miss the must-see bits and is able afterwards to put all the different ruins in a sequence that makes sense and can tell a story worth remembering

Pension poor and housing rich in Greece? A generational perspective argues for policy entrepreneurship

The Greek crisis can be framed as an ageing narrative. Greece confronted dilemmas that all ageing societies are bound to face. For example, it was forced in June 2015 to choose between discharging a legal obligation – repaying the IMF– and an ethical obligation – paying pensions; ethics won out. Pensions crop up in every juncture of the crisis – most recently during the third bailout. Future ageing issues have been telescoped forward

Grexit and Brexit, past and future: intertwined tales?

Only one letter separates Grexit from Brexit. Against expectations Grexit (from the Eurozone) did not materialise in 2015. A year later, expectations were also confounded as Brexit (from the EU) inexorably unfolds. The two processes, one contingent and the other all too real, have intertwined in the past: the Greek crisis provided a potent image of what leaving the EU could avoid. Grexit was instrumental in bringing forth Brexit. In the future, the causality will be reversed: Brexit will change the background and the rules where the decisive acts of the Greek crisis will be played out

Gender and the Greek crisis: towards a risk assessment

The Greek crisis is uniquely long and deep; while it is unfolding, secular trends in ageing, technology and globalization are changing the ways people work and how economics shapes attitudes. Add to this that Greece has been following the EU precepts for equality legislation for more than a generation, and the gender implications of its crisis acquire wider significance. As for the domestic significance of gender, suffice it to point out to the waste implicit in the second fastest ageing society, leaving the full potential of half of its citizens unexplored

A pension system for younger workers in Greece: a proposal for growth

Recent pension reforms help to trap Greece in deep crisis, but only increase the insecurity of pensioners. To break out of that vicious circle, a fresh start is needed. Such can result from the immediate introduction of a new type of pre-funded pensions. Such a new system, will put a stop to the reneging on pension commitments and can give a decisive impetus to the growth process. A detailed proposal was presented in December 2016 by a team of three academics from the University of Piraeus. That proposal has been quantified, potential problems identified and solutions proffered; even the considerable transition problems are likely to be more tractable than the most probable future course of the present, totally non-viable, arrangements

Long-term care, ageing and gender in the Greek crisis

This paper examines Long Term Care (LTC) in Greece over the crisis. It does so through examining micro data from the 2007 and 2015 waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement and Europe (SHARE. The crisis was exceptionally deep and involved retrenchments in public welfare, superimposed on a familial LTC system. Hence, the ‘austerity narrative’, expects cutbacks to have led to deteriorating outcomes and to rising informal provision. The empirical investigation casts doubt on these expectations: First, LTC needs did not rise, despite a deterioration in health. Second, ‘care gaps’ – people declaring need who receive no care – shrank, despite austerity. Third, it was (paid) professional care, rather than informal care which rose, despite the familial LTC system. Fourth, care in the last year of life is a further drain on family finances. The paper concludes with thoughts on whether expecting the family to keep delivering is a sustainable LTC medium term policy in the face of ageing

The Gender Gap in Pension in the EU

Analizza livello, distribuzione e determinanti del differenziale di genere nel reddito pensionistico nei paesi dell'Europa a 27. L'analisi è effettuata sia a livello macroeconomico che a livello intra-familiare e si basa su tecniche statistiche ed econometriche. . Si basa principalmente su due fonti di microdati, lo European Union European Survey of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) e la Survey of Health Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)