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An integral part of government policy is to encourage employees to make financial provision for retirement. This paper asks why eligible employees, particularly women, do not join their company schemes. This two‐stage study uses face to face interviews followed by a survey of 532 employees who have chosen not to become members of their company schemes. Findings highlight personal pension ownership and a requirement for flexibility and pension portability as the key reasons for non‐membership. The dominant reason given by women was the expectation that a partner would provide in retirement.

Having discussed the growth and current status of company occupational pensions and the claimed role of pension provision in fostering employee loyalty to an organisation, this paper reports the findings of a research study that investigated employees’ perceptions of these types of pension scheme, a perspective that has hitherto been somewhat neglected. The findings show that, although employees had joined a company scheme largely automatically as a concomitant of employment, their current assessments of, and concerns about, different aspects of occupational pension schemes are framed in more nuanced, instrumental and individualistic terms: the attractive features of these schemes are not so much those that provide security for the employee as “breadwinner” and their dependants as those that offer a cost‐effective way for the individual to build up a fund for their own, possibly early, retirement. Company pension schemes are seen more as contingent private transactions than as part of long‐term stable commitments by and to an employer. On the basis of this evidence, it is argued that, if the employer is perceived as merely one possible pension provider among many, any link between pension provision and employee loyalty or commitment, a link that was always tenuous, is extremely fragile.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how changes in the distribution of pre retirement labour earnings affect post‐retirement income in the UK.

The authors estimate a PROBIT model and perform a counterfactual simulation to assess the effects of changes in the earnings distributions on pensions in the UK. The paper uses data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS).

The distribution of labour earnings before retirement plays a considerable role in the pension distribution of current retirees, particularly for low and medium incomes in the period 1991‐2007 for the UK. Improvements in Social Security have lifted many out of poverty; however there is still a gender gap as it is found that the current system of public and private schemes has not substantially improved pension income dispersion among women. On the other hand, changes in labour earning distributions have benefited more poor female pensioners than male.

The paper uses BHPS data, which is a longitudinal panel of survey questions made to UK households between 1991 and 2007. The level of detail of such data allows the study of the complete distributions of pre and post retirement income rather than focussing only on some measures of dispersion.

The potential of flexible retirement will not be realised until the fear of substantial income loss is allayed. At present, for people looking at flexible retirement options, the occupational pension is not the vehicle to use, as the SFO (Superannuation Funds Office) does not look favourably on those planning in advance to wind down their career gradually insisting, as it does, that a fixed retirement age constitutes part of the scheme. Norman Fowler's consultative document on Personal Pensions (1984) aims to encourage more take‐up of occupational schemes through the individual being given freedom to choose the type of benefits suiting individual needs; in effect, this will allow people to contract out of the State earnings‐related scheme. Greater attention needs to be given to training trade union representatives in pension matters — many, at the moment, being expected to discuss very complex issues with little or no training.

This study aims to present a bibliometric analysis of research on pensions and retirement systems over the past 100 years. The study examines the intellectual structure and mapping in the field of pension and retirement; uncovers growth and publication patterns; identifies thematic areas in the pension domain; provides analysis of gaps; and recommends direction for future research.

The study sourced data from the Scopus database between 1910 and 2022 covering a 112-year period. Employing bibliometric techniques, a total of 6,661 papers were selected and analyzed using SPSS and VOSviewer software.

Results from the cluster analysis suggest research in this domain has focused on five thematic areas namely pension plans, retirement systems, pension schemes, demographic, and socio-economic determinants of pension and retirement decisions. The authors show from the overlay visualization output how these themes have evolved within the period under review. The study further presents major developments, conclusions and suggestions for future research directions based on insights obtained from the research themes to enrich the field of pension and retirement planning.

The study is useful for informing researchers and practitioners on the state of the pension domain, and findings are useful avenues in developing the research field.

The study adds to existing literature on pension and retirement by offering an analysis of the state of pension research over a century and highlighting areas for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to present a review which brings together the existing literature on the reasons for the decline in pension schemes.

Adopting a positivist stance, where the reality of man as an adaptor, in a study of systems, processes and change is observed, the authors undertake a review of the existing literature on pensions and pension accounting.

What is absent from the existing literature is a review of the extent to which both a variety and a combination of factors affect companies' decisions to close their defined benefit pension scheme.

The paper provides an holistic overview of the diverse range of literature that addresses the decline in pension schemes.

Contemporary debates over the future direction of retirement pensions policy have been dominated by a polemic over the scope of, and the future balance between, the respective roles of public and private sectors in the management and delivery of benefit “entitlements”. This debate has negatively judged the institutional capacity of the state sustainably to supply adequate national retirement provision. This development is viewed as problematic as it is contentious in that it seeks to abandon lessons learned from the long, albeit currently underestimated, historical pedigree of public‐private partnership in institutional pensions provision. Against the ascendancy of World Bank‐driven attitudes regarding the limitations of “public”’ pensions provision, it is argued that due recognition be given to the ongoing capacity of state sectors to contribute positively to the management and delivery of old‐age pensions. Argues further that the social welfare‐driven imperatives which led states initially to become increasingly more involved in national pensions provision remain no less salient today and for the future, and are particularly salient for developing economies with poorly developed private financial sectors.

Following a brief review of research on special early retirement, provides a summary of a recent extensive study by Maule, Cliff and Taylor (in press) and re‐interprets the findings of this study in the context of the development of effective early retirement schemes. Discusses effectiveness in terms of the factors which are important in the decision and how these should be presented, the worries and concerns which people have about early retirement and how these should be addressed, ways of helping people make the decision and the factors at the point of decision that are likely to affect the quality of life in retirement. Considers of the ways in which each of these factors affect different groups of workers and the possibility that retirement schemes can be targeted to be differentially attractive to different groups.

Purpose – European social protection arrangements have undergone significant transformations since the mid-1970s. However, while the existing literature has focused on reforms in public welfare arrangements, an analysis of both public and private social protection is needed to understand the social protection status of European workers. Recent reforms have led to varying degrees of social protection dualism between insiders and outsiders. After showing the existence of dualization processes in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, the chapter explores the structural and political sources of these processes.

Methodology/approach – We conduct a comparative historical analysis and process tracing of policy change and its drivers in three major European political economies. A combination of qualitative evidence and quantitative measurements are used.

Findings – We find that de-industrialization has contributed to unsettling the skill composition that sustained both public and private postwar social protection arrangements. This development has affected the preferences of employers, for whom cost containment has become a critical issue. Furthermore, we show that the capacity of employers to realize their preferences depends on the governance structures of social policy arrangements and on domestic political institutions.

Originality/value – The chapter suggests new perspectives on employers' preferences in Coordinated and Liberal political economies which differ from those which have informed the Varieties of Capitalism approach.