Retirement patterns and income inequality

Publication type

Journal Article

Author

Publication date

May 5, 2012

Summary:

How do social policies shape life courses, and which consequences do different life course patterns hold for individuals? This article engages the example of retirement in Germany and Britain to analyze life course patterns and their consequences for income inequality. Sequence analysis is used to measure retirement trajectories. The liberal welfare state in Britain generates more unstable retirement trajectories (differentiated) that are more dissimilar across the population (de-standardized) than the conservative-corporatist welfare state in Germany. Contrary to common conjectures, this is not associated with higher income inequality among retirees in Britain. This study concludes that there is no simple straightforward link between life course patterns and income inequality.

Published in

Social Forces

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 90 , p.685 -711

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sf/sor015

ISSN

15347605

Subjects

Notes

Online in Albert Sloman Library except current year

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*


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