Attitudes towards the public-private mix for retirement income in Europe

Pension systems in affluent democracies are undergoing a process of privatisation and marketisation that will likely reinforce multi-pillar pension systems. Yet, most public opinion research so far investigates attitudes concerning parametric aspects of public pension programmes (pension spending, pension age, level of redistribution). We have very little understanding of individual preferences regarding the mix of public and non-public sources of their own retirement income. This study begins to fill this gap through an analysis of the preferred mix of pension income with the research question: What explains public preferences on the public-private pension mix? Using a novel cross-national survey in six European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain), we assess the role of self-interest, ideology and institutional factors in shaping retirement income preferences. We find that self-interest (e.g. age), political ideology, and institutional arguments (i.e. national pension system design) explain pension income preferences.