Comparative pension policy outcomes in social democratic nations: The case of Finland (Sweden, United States, Germany)

Issues of pension viability are at the forefront of gerontological debate. The uncertainty of long-term effects of the societal aging process on public pensions and the constant public policy struggle to maintain income levels among pensioners are critical points of discussion. As existing pension policies are examined and amended, policymakers increasingly rely on experts of pension research and income inequality for policy frameworks. Gøsta Esping-Andersen's (1990) Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism has provided the seminal typology for nearly two decades. His typology consists of three regimes: liberal, conservative, and social-democratic.; The purpose of this research was to examine and compare the outcomes of historical pension policy in a social-democratic nation (Finland) with pension-receiving cohorts in a comparison nation of each regime: liberal (the United States), conservative (Germany), and social-democratic (Sweden). Specific aims were: to investigate the continuing viability of Esping-Andersen's typology at a national (macro) level; to explore a new analytical approach by disaggregating the population and conducting micro analyses; and to examine the value of using more sensitive inequality indices (Atkinson and Theil) in lieu of the commonly used Gini Index. Finland provides a case study focus of the comparative analysis.; Analysis of Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) data confirms that Esping-Andersen's typology remains viable at the macro level for the liberal United States. However, conservative Germany and social-democratic Sweden and Finland may be shifting from their respective classifications with possible convergence of the conservative and social-democratic regimes into a European regime.; A similar conservative-social democratic convergence is apparent for Finland at the micro level. The trend for males across age cohorts suggests that the regimes are converging. However, at all levels of micro analysis, the trend for females remains consistent with a social-democratic regime. This may indicate that the Finnish pension system allows females to remain independent of spousal employment in terms of pension benefits.; Finally, the research suggests basic interpretability of the Atkinson Index combined with the generation of 95% confidence intervals for the Theil index provides a more robust method of analysis not offered with the Gini Index.