A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Financial Sustainability Above All Else? Drivers and Types of Pension Reform Recommendations in EU Socio‐economic Governance

  2024. Jan Helmdag, Niko Väänänen. Journal of Common Market Studies

  Article

  The average age of the population and the ratio of workers to pensioners in theEuropean Union (EU) are rising, putting increasing pressure on the long-termsustainability of pension systems. To counteract this development, a large number ofpension reform recommendations (PRRs) have been issued within EU socio-economicgovernance. In this article, we analyse the extent to which PRRs are consistent with thethree main objectives of the open method of coordination (OMC), which emphasise (i)financial sustainability, (ii) benefit adequacy and (iii) modernisation with respect to genderequality. Using an original dataset, we code 438 PRRs from 2011 to 2023 and analyse theextent to which these are consistent with the three main objectives of the OMC. Ourresults show that PRRs are primarily focused on financial sustainability, to the detrimentof adequacy and modernisation, and that they are driven solely by sustainabilityconcerns.

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• The Politics of Unemployment Benefit Reforms

  2022. Jan Helmdag, Kati Kuitto. Parties, Institutions and Preferences, 261-297

  Chapter

  The quantitative-empirical research on the political economy of welfare state reforms has offered multiple explanations on how governments impact social policy reforms. The emergence of the ‘dependent variable problem’ and the ‘independent variable problem’, however, clearly calls into question some of the previous findings. In this chapter, we offer an analysis that takes both issues into account, and we show that the analytical framework of the agenda-setting power model (ASPM) developed by Jahn (2010, 2011, 2016b) is suitable for analyzing dynamics of social policy reforms. Our analysis of changes in unemployment benefit replacement rates and generosity in 21 OECD countries from 1971 to 2010 shows that we can observe a clear classical partisanship-relationship involving instances of both leftist expansion and rightist retrenchment. Moreover, we show that political and institutional veto players have an intervening effect on unemployment benefit reforms and that both left and right governments are constrained in their agendas once veto players gain relevance in the political bargaining process.

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• Extending working lives: How policies shape retirement and labour market participation of older workers

  2021. Kai Kuitto, Jan Helmdag. Social Policy & Administration 55, 423-439

  Article

  This study investigates how policies shape retirement and labour market participation of older workers and thus help extending working lives. It employs a time‐series–cross‐section analysis of the effects of macro‐level institutional pull, push and retention factors on effective retirement age and employment rate of older workers in 15 OECD countries from 1992 to 2010. The comparative approach reveals that public pension system rules that have been geared towards postponing retirement in many countries in past decades, indeed, are significant determinants of lengthening working lives. In particular, statutory retirement age and financial disincentives for early retirement proof important. Institutional effects differ by gender, though. Furthermore, the results point to the importance of social policies supporting labour market participation throughout the life‐course: social investment in human capital and public services clearly supports extending working lives.

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• Generosität on Sozialleistungen

  2019. Detlef Jahn, Jan Helmdag. Handbuch Sozialpolitik, 561-583

  Chapter

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• Interdependent policy learning: Contextual diffusion of active labour marketpolicies

  2018. Jan Helmdag, Kati Kuitto. Learning in Public Policy, 317-346

  Chapter

  This chapter analyses in which ways diffusion based on interdependent policy learning explains expenditure on active labour market policies (ALMP) in the OECD countries. By applying error correction models using multiplicative spatial Prais-Winsten regressions for analyzing the diffusion of ALMPs in 22 OECD countries from 1991–2013, we find evidence of governments adapting labour market policy strategies that have proven successful, that is, perform well in increasing labour market participation in other countries. However, interdependent learning is conditional on the institutional framework: policy-makers rather learn from the experience of other countries in the same welfare regime. Even more importantly, the results point to the importance of the European Employment Strategy (EES) as an international coordination framework facilitating policy learning.

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