David Wright Thesis Abstract

Abstract

The UK Government has pursued a policy to extend working lives since 2000. Many other developed nations, notably Germany which had a much deeper commitment to early retirement, have made faster progress than the UK. Unexpectedly, the employment rate for older people in Germany increased faster than the UK and even overtook the UK in 2011. After analysing nationally representative surveys from 1992 to 2016 this thesis argued that that what had made the difference was the unintended consequence of improvements in family and social policy in Germany which had improved the employment trajectories of young women. The implication for the UK was to highlight the limits of current policies to extend working lives which simply target older people without recognising the importance of earlier life course. Existing policies are not wrong in themselves but to make further improvements the UK should adopt a more inclusive and coordinated approach.

Full text

EXTENDING WORKING LIFE –
COMPARING GERMANY AND THE UK
Abstract
The UK Government has pursued a policy to extend working lives since 2000. Many
other developed nations share this goal and some, notably Germany, have made
faster progress towards this goal than the UK. Existing research often explains
differences between nations using institutional theories such as Esping-Andersen’s
‘Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism’ (1990) and Hall and Soskice’s ‘Varieties of
Capitalism’ (2001) which categorize Germany as a conservative and the UK as a
liberal market economy. Using these theories, Ebbinghaus (2006), predicted
Germany faced greater barriers to reversing the policy of early retirement than the
UK. However, the employment rate for older people in Germany increased faster
than the UK and even overtook the UK in 2011. This thesis presents an explanation
for this unexpected outcome.
Four key strategies were identified as underpinning policy changes in Germany and
the UK to extend working lives: increasing recruitment, switching to flexible working,
changing welfare incentives so work always paid and improving Employability. A
review of policy changes indicated Germany no longer fitted the existing
conservative/liberal categorization. Such categorizations have been criticized for
failing to take account of the differences in life courses of men and women, the
increases in female employment and the decline of the male breadwinner household
model. So, a fifth explanation was added - that life-course, gender and household
changes and the expansion of welfare state services explain the faster improvement
in the employment of older Germans.
These five explanations were converted to competing hypotheses which were
evaluated by cross-national comparison of the employment trajectories of individuals
over their life-course. Only data which enabled individuals to be tracked over a long
period could be used. Key variables from the longitudinal panel surveys from the UK
(British Household Panel Survey and its successor Understanding Society) and
Germany (Socio-Economic Panel) were harmonised. To compare the effects of
policy changes the analysis covered 1992 to 2016.

The conclusion was that what had made the difference to German employment of
older people was the unintended consequence of improvements in family and social
policy in Germany which had improved the employment trajectories of young
women. The implication for the UK was to highlight the limits of policies to extend
working lives which simply target older people and their employers to change their
behaviour. Existing policies are not wrong in themselves but to make further
improvements the UK should adopt a more inclusive and coordinated approach.
Key words: Older Workers, Extended Working Life, Work and Employment,
International comparison, United Kingdom, Germany, BHPS, Understanding Society,
SOEP
David Wright
January 2019