The Netherlands belongs, with its three pension pillars and its substantial funding, to the leading group of countries in Europe with a solid pension system. But tax facilities for pension savings have become an expensive business for the Dutch government. It is now one of the largest 'tax...

A wide variety of tax regimes for (occupational) private pension saving are in place around the world. Generally, pension saving is taxed at a relatively low rate, although the revenue loss due to tax facilities for pension savings and/or pension tax expenditures may differ across countries. A...

Most analyses of social protection are focussed on public arrangements. However, social effort is not restricted to the public domain; all kinds of private arrangements can be substitutes to public programs. In fact, in several countries there has been a shift from public towards private social...

The European Union coordinates and encourages Member State actions to combat poverty, and to reform their social protection systems on the basis of policy exchanges and mutual learning (‘best practices'). Some EU countries are more effective in poverty reduction than others. What can explain...