Social policy and temporal patterns of retirement. Evidence from Germany and Britain

Abstract

Since the 1970s retirement has become increasingly early and less standardized. While
much research has addressed the early retirement trend, there is little understanding of
changing retirement patterns. Yet, changing retirement patterns are an important potential
driver of economic inequality among retirees. This article proposes de-standardization
and differentiation as two concepts to systematically analyze temporal retirement
patterns. Germany and Britain are compared to assess how social policies interact to
shape individual retirement patterns and economic inequality. The study uses sequence
analysis and relative distribution methods to provide an innovative and dynamic
perspective on retirement. Results from longitudinal data show that retirement destandardization
and differentiation are driven by employment maintenance policies on the
labor market, high institutional complexity in pensions, and a lack of institutionalized
early retirement routes. De-standardization and differentiation of retirement, however, are
not associated with increasing economic inequality among retirees.