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The book is a sophisticated and informative analysis of pension or welfare regimes that recognises the restrictive sectoral definitions of pension type, and therefore aims to determine not whether public regimes work better than private regimes, but rather which combinations of public and private engagement in pensions are most consistent with social inclusion. In present day Europe with its rapidly ageing population, this timely text explores how financially sustainable many of the pension regimes are and, more importantly, the extent to which they are socially inclusive for citizens with interrupted work patterns. It contributes to the fields of pensions, risks and ageing by providing a comprehensive, comparative analysis of six industrialised nations in Europe, namely Italy, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland and the United Kingdom.
The book is methodologically interesting by virtue of its construction and use of 'risk biographies' - hypothetical individuals who more closely reflect the complexity of real lives with wage oscillation, employment interruptions and unemployment. Examples of these include the mother and unqualified part-time worker in the...