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Abstract
This article aims at contributing to the literature on the financialisation of pensions in Europe by examining the transformations occurring in semi-peripheral Portugal. The Portuguese case accounts for the variegated nature of financialisation in general, and of pension provision in particular, throughout Europe. While the country followed similar processes to those of core European Union (EU) countries, leading to an increasingly integrated financial sector in the international arena, this integration was mainly led by the banking sector rather than by capital markets. This helps account for the relatively reduced role of private retirement income products in the country. Nonetheless, the Portuguese pension system has been equally subject to reform, aiming at reducing its weight in public expenditure. The result is a contraction in coverage and benefit without achieving an equivalent match in supplementary private forms of pension provision. Under a prolonged period of stagnation and crisis, the deterioration of State pensions for the majority continues while a residual private, outward-oriented and foreign-owned pension sector grows for the most affluent, further exposing the systemic and variegated nature of financialisation processes in the semi-periphery.
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Author biographies
João Rodrigues is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, both at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. His research interests range from the history of neoliberalism to the recent Eurocrisis. He has published on these topics in journals such as Cambridge Journal of Economics, Competition & Change and New Political Economy.
Ana C. Santos is a Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Her research interests include methodology, financialisation, household finance and housing. She has published on these topics in journals such as Journal of Economic Methodology, Cambridge Journal of Economics and New Political Economy.
Nuno Teles is a Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. His research interests range from financialisation studies to development economics. He is one of the authors of Crisis in the Eurozone, London: Verso (2012).
