European Policy Analysis Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2016 | Page 67

European Policy Analysis - Volume 2, Number 1 - Spring 2016

Policy and Decision to Retire in Central and Eastern
European Countries
Daiva SkučieneA & Julija MoskvinaA
The exit from the labor market in old age is a process determined by different
institutional factors of the labor market. Working conditions, employment
protection regulation, organizational policies and employers’ attitude can
either make people stop working or motivate them to work longer. The decision
to stay or withdraw from the labor market in old age with regard to the
employment policies in the Central and Eastern EU member states is analyzed
in the paper. Central and Eastern European countries have been selected due
to their similar historical development, as well as due to the advantages of
comparative analysis providing more robust results based on the data from
several national cases. For the literature analysis, the document meta-analysis
and the analysis of data from the European Social Survey (ESS5, 2010) and
Eurobarometer 76.2 (September–October 2011), including methods such as
descriptive statistics, binary logistic regression was applied. The willingness
to continue in paid work after retirement is influenced by the complexity of
the institutional factors related to the working time, autonomy at work, work
and family balance, training opportunities, adjustment of the work place, the
view of the employers and antidiscrimination actions. The analysis revealed
the demand for effective policies in the fields of promoting productivity and
fighting discrimination in Central and Eastern European countries.
Keywords: decision to retire, Central and Eastern Europe, employment
policies, working conditions, employment protection, or ganizational policies,
productivity.

Introduction

participation of the older population is
the increase of the official retirement
age that most of the European countries
practiced in the past decade.

However, this measure has only a
moderate effect. Along with the increase
of retirement age, political measures such
as antidiscrimination laws, the strictness
of employment protection and so on

T

he recent trends in the labor
markets of the European Union
(EU) countries with regard to
the participation of the population aged
55+ show the consequent increase in the
employment rates of cohorts 55–59 and
60–65. One of the reasons for the active
A

Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
doi: 10.18278/epa.2.1.6
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