Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

workers seldom coincide. For a successful implementation of such reforms, Kotowska
argues, employers must review stereotypes on old age and be willing to hire older workers.
The individual, firm-level and institutional determinants for labour market exit were also
studied by Teipen (2003) and Oswald (2001). While Teipen concentrated on management
patterns and chose a qualitative method approach, Oswald worked with German and British
panel data on individual work patterns and labour market exit. Oswald drew a distinction
between the ´exit into retirement´, which she assumes is voluntary, and the ´exit into
unemployment´, which is involuntary and dependent on labour market demand.
In Western Europe, the push perspective is represented by many authors. The chances to
reach standard retirement age are seen in age(ing)-friendly personnel policies and a positive
attitude towards old age. The authors concentrate predominantly on health management and
health-conducive working conditions (inter al. Morschhäuser 1999, 2003; Behrens 2003;
Marstedt/Müller 1998; Molinié 2003; Ilmarinen/Tempel 2003), less often – on further
vocational training (Astor/Jasper 2001; Hilpert/Kistler/Wahse 2000; Marstedt et al. 2003;
Wolff 2000; Benedix/Hammer/Knuth 2002).
Casey (1989) introduced the concepts of ´instrument substitution´ and ´cost-shifting´ to
the analysis of early exit. With ´instrument substitution´ he brought to attention the fact that
in European countries, several provisions for early exit exist, and as one is circumvented,
another one opens up and channels the stream of withdrawing workers. Moreover, as he
showed on the history of early retirement in European countries, public arrangements were
often supplemented by private ones. ´Cost shifting´, in turn, entails shifting the costs for
early retirement from one body to another, e.g. from the administration of unemployment
benefits to companies. Casey´s work plausibly documented that push and pull mechanisms –
even if he did not name them so – need to be observed together.
This was pursued even further by Kohli et al. (1991), who introduced the concept of
´pathways of exit´. The authors diagnosed at that time a gap in research on the interaction
between social policy and the labour market (Kohli/Rein 1991). According to the scholars,
research so far had focused predominantly on pull factors of retirement which did not
sufficiently explain early exit. Why else would national welfare states which provide
retirement incentives generate different national outcomes? Kohli and Rein suggested a
combination of the pull and push perspective. In their analysis, the state was not the main
societal actor solely responsible for setting the course but only one of the players which
more often reacted to changing economic pressures and resorted to “muddling through”
(ibid: 12).
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