Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

The impact of institutional factors has not been confirmed in all cases. Statutory
regulations have only limited influence on firms´ policies in Poland, and in Germany, their
impact is partly counterbalanced by structural determinants (the economic situation of the
firm and the situation on the labour market) (hypothesis 1). The same applies to the
development of activity rates and the average retirement age in Germany and Poland, and
the adaptation of retirement preferences in Germany – statutory regulations have an impact
in line with structural factors (hypothesis 4). (In the case of Poland, institutional
disincentives to early exit have not yet come fully into force, therefore the impact of
institutional factors upon individual life courses can be observed mostly in the form of
eager utilisation of still available early exit options.) Structural factors also play a role with
regard to the corporate policy towards older workers – the economic situation of the firm
clearly brings about the externalisation of older workers in the field of health management
in Germany, and employee exit in both Poland and Germany (hypothesis 3).
The institutional theory is confirmed with regard to labour relations and exit policy in
German firms - the institution of co-determination influences the power relations in the firm
and leads to the situation that early exit as firm policy can be pursued only in collusion
between firm management and workers´ representatives (hypothesis 7). At supranational
level, the institutional theory is also confirmed – the cross-national differences with regard
to the internalising, respectively externalising effect of firms´ personnel policy towards
older workers exceed differences between branches. The institutional path dependence
thesis (applied, on the one hand, to lock-in effects in pension policy, and to the degree of
fulfilment of Stockholm and Barcelona targets on the other hand) was supported in the case
of Poland but not supported in the case of Germany (hypothesis 6). Contrary to initial
assumptions, despite the advanced early exit trend, the current institutional configuration of
pension and labour market policy in Germany provides more facilitators than inhibitors to
active ageing. The opposite is true for Poland, although the employment rate of older
workers is slowly going up and one important step to the end of the early exit trend was
made by introducing bridging pensions in 2009. 62 The company level both in Poland and
Germany has not evolved into an environment which fosters prolonged employment
(hypothesis 6).
62 That move has reduced the number of potential beneficiaries of early retirement pensions for persons
performing work ´of special character or ´under special conditions´ from over 1 million to 260,000 persons
(“Weto prezydenta ws. pomostówek odrzucone”, www.gazeta.pl, 29.12.2008).
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