Towards fairer pension systems : four essays on public pensions
(2026)
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- (en) European pension systems are being reformed under pressure from population ageing, fiscal constraints, and the growing role of European Union level socioeconomic governance in shaping national reform agendas. These reforms are often presented as technical adjustments, but they necessarily involve value judgments about who should bear risks, burdens, and costs. This dissertation asks what a fair pension reform requires. Drawing on Rawlsian liberal egalitarianism, it treats public pensions as institutions of social cooperation across the life course and between generations. The dissertation argues that pension systems should recognise certain socially indispensable burdens that fall unevenly on citizens. Military conscription, when justified as necessary for the protection of basic liberties, imposes concentrated costs on those drafted and should therefore be compensated through pension rights, including earlier access to retirement. Childrearing likewise supports intergenerational pension schemes by raising future citizens and contributors. Pension systems should therefore better recognise care work across different pension tiers. The dissertation also examines institutions that shape pension reform. It shows that EU socioeconomic governance has prioritised financial sustainability over adequacy and modernisation, and argues for greater transparency in the recommendation process. Finally, it compares Finnish and Swedish public pension reserve funds to show how institutional design shapes responsible investment policy. The dissertation argues that fair pension reform is not only about ensuring financial sustainability but also about which contributions the system recognizes, which burdens it compensates, and how transparently these choices are justified.
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Väänänen, N. (2026). Towards fairer pension systems : four essays on public pensions. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/279786