European Policy Analysis Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2016 | Page 68

Policy and Decision to Retire in Central and Eastern European Countries

were adopted, in order to ensure a higher
participation of older employees in the
labor market.

Central and Eastern European
countries also applied such employment
measures to safeguard the higher
employment of older employees.

In 2006–2014, almost in all
Central and Eastern European countries,
the duration of working life was lower
than that in the EU27 countries on
average, except Estonia. The growth of
the working life duration during the past
years in the analyzed countries was also
slow. The average exit age from the labor
market was higher only in Estonia and
Latvia in 2006–2009, whereas it was lower
in Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia
than that in EU27 countries on average.
The employment rate of population aged
55–64 is traditionally higher in Baltic
states and lower in Hungary, Poland and
Slovenia. The shorter duration of working
life than that in the EU on average, different
average exit age from the labor market and
the different level of employment rate of
older population in Central and Eastern
European countries give the challenge to
determine the reasons behind the people’s
decisions either to continue working or to
retire in order to extend the duration of
older people’s participation in the labor
market.

The aim of the paper is to analyze
the decision and the factors influencing
it to withdraw from the labor market in
old age with regard to the institutional
features for employment policy in the
Central and Eastern EU member states.
To achieve this, a few objectives were
set: first, to carry out an analysis of the
theoretical background on the topic;
secondly, to analyze the employment
policy in the Central and Eastern EU

states and finally, to analyze the decision
to retire or continue working after
retirement and its influencing factors.

Theoretical Background

W

hile analyzing employment
policy
instruments
in
connection
with
the
subjective decision to stay or withdraw
from the labor market, several important
theoretical statements should be taken
into account. For the analysis policy
and public preferences or decisions, the
institutional/neoinstitutional
theories
offer a reasonable framework.
Institutional/neoinstitutional
tradition has an important role to play in
the tradition of the social policy research
domain (Aidukaitė 2004; 2009; EspingAndersen 1990; Kleinman 2002; Pedersen
1999; Pierson 2001). However, for the
analysis of the relation between policy
and public preferences or decisions, a
reasonable framework is advised in the
following researches. The neoinstitutional
theory states that, first and foremost
the, formal structure reflects the public
understanding and interpretation of
social reality. Fredriksson, Pallas, and
Wehmeier (2013) and Reay and Candace
(2015) referred to Thornton et al.’s
(2012) understanding about institutional
logics, which shapes how individuals
produce and reproduce their material
subsistence, organize time and space,
and provide meaning to their social
reality. Fredriksson et al. (2013) used the
concept of Lawrence and Suddaby (2006)
“institutional work,” which they explained
as how rules, norms, ideas and practices
are formed and transformed, rather than
agents achieving the specific goal.

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