Pension systems and financial systems in Europe : a comparison from the point of view of complementarity

At present, the question of how national pension or retirement payment systems should be organised is being hotly debated in various countries, and opinions vary widely as to what should be regarded as the optimal design for such systems. It appears to the authors of this paper that in this discussion one aspect is largely overlooked: what relationships exist between the pension system and the financial system in a given country? As such relationship might prove to be important, the present paper investigates the following questions: 1) Are there differences between the national pension systems of three major European countries - Germany, France and the U.K. - and between the financial systems of these countries? 2) And if the existence of such differences can be demonstrated, is there a correspondence between the differences with respect to the national pension systems and the differences as regards the countries' financial systems? 3) And if such a