Abstract (EN)

When Europeans decided to reform their retirement systems in the 1990s, they took the American model of retirement financing as their major point of reference. The defining feature of the American system is that financing is shared between a public federal regime, and a private complement in the form of a pension fund. Instituting this feature in continental Europe was the primary objective of reformers during the decade of stock market euphoria that marked the 1990s. Curiously, the effectiveness of this model has not been questioned following the market crash of 2001 or 2007, despite a series of social and economic blows suffered in the United States. What is more, the model continues to relentlessly insinuate itself into the institutional make up of continental European countries. How can we understand this persistent belief in the virtues of the pension funds?