Serbia

Mihajlo Jakovljevic,Mirjana Jovanovic,Olivera Milovanovic,Svetlana Radevic

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-40985-2_31

Abstract

AbstractSerbia is a post-socialist country with approximately 7.1 million people undergoing a strong and continuous process of demographic ageing. The average age of the population has increased to 43.2 years and the proportion older than 65 years has increased to 17.4%. The period of rapid ageing of the population coincided with political and economic crisis in Serbia during the last decade of the 20th century. This period was marked by extensive emigration of the younger population, the delay of birth and a strong decline in fertility. The major economic challenges ahead include: high unemployment rates, the need for job creation in the public sector, structural reforms of state-owned companies, strategic public sector reforms and the need for new foreign direct investment. Serbia has been gradually implementing structural economic reforms needed to ensure the country’s long-term prosperity. Policies designed to extend working life have been one of the dominant responses to population ageing.

Highlights

Aiming to create financially and socially sustainable pension systems, most European countries have undertaken reforms to increase employment at older ages and establish a balance between the number of years of contributing to a pension fund and disability insurance, and the number of years of receiving pension benefits (Jakovljevic et al 2016a, b; Rancic and Jakovljevic 2016)
A key measure recommended to member states for reforming pension systems to improve their financial sustainability and adequacy is to harmonise retirement age and increased life expectancy, which was implemented in specific degrees in different countries (European Commission 2018)
The retirement age in Serbia was not linked to increased life expectancy; it remained unchanged from the 1960s to the early 21st century (Jakovljevic et al 2016a, b)

Summary

Jovanovic Department of Psychiatry, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia

O. Milovanovic Faculty of Medical Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia S. Radevic Faculty of Medical Sciences, Department of Social Medicine, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia Á. Ní Léime et al (eds.), Extended Working Life Policies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40985-2_31

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