Over the past two decades, labourforce participation rates of older workers decreased in all OECD countries. Early retirement and disability are the most important explanations. The central question addressed in this article is the role part-time employment for older workers (gradual retirement) can play in reversing this downward trend, by reducing the number of early withdrawals from the labourforce, thus easing future financial problems resulting from demographic changes. This article considers what can be learned from experience and policies in Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands and Sweden.

Pension fund investments have a substantial influence on sustainability. We analyze preferences for sustainable investment among a representative cross-section of 2486 pension fund participants in the Netherlands, through a questionnaire survey fielded in the LISS panel. In contrast to standard investment theory, we find that sustainable investments are commonly favored, even if they harm financial interests. To explain variation among participants' preferences for sustainable investments, we test socio-demographic factors suggested by dominant neoclassical investment and behavioral finance theories. Moreover, we add to the existing literature by developing an alternative cultural-theoretical explanation that stresses the role of value orientations. We estimate linear and generalized ordered logit regression models, and find little support for neoclassical and behavioral finance theories, but substantial support for the importance of value orientations. Given established patterns of value-change, this finding suggests that a further increase in the demand for sustainable investments across developed economies is a likely scenario.

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In recent years European employers, unions and governments have developed initiatives that offer employees the right to exchange certain items within an agreed package of employment conditions. So far, the available evidence on the use of such 'cafeteria systems' is largely based on survey data rather than on actual choices. We analyse the actual choices made by the employees of Radboud University Nijmegen in the years [2002][2003][2004]. The results cast doubt on the efficiency and the effectiveness of employee choices within collective agreements, contradict the unions' push for working time reduction and question wage moderation and policies on work-life balance.

This paper analyses government policy towards the two major forms of atypical work in Europe: part-time employment and temporary work. It is submitted that the policies implemented promote the volume of marginal part-time employment and temporary work. The policies aiming at more temporary jobs did not result in additional employment; they merely resulted in a redistribution of unemployment and a shift in the recruitment patterns in the direction of subsidised temporary jobs. Too much emphasis on numerical flexibility is not without danger. Countries run the risk that employers will not pay sufficient attention to the source of their long-term flexibility, manpower training. It is argued that regular part-time work is an alternative for uncertain temporary jobs, Its potential expansion is considerable. Some recommendations are put forward to promote regular part-time jobs and improve the position of flexible part-time workers and temporary workers.