The Austrian Pension System – How Recent Reforms Have Changed Fiscal Sustainability and Pension Benefits

1 Introduction The twofold demographic challenge – increasing life expectancy and low fertility rates – has put most pension systems under budgetary pressure. Over the last decade this has led to massive requests for reforms throughout Europe. In Austria the sequence of legal changes has been particularly rapid with – overall substantial – pension reforms in 2000, 2003 and 2004. At the same time, a number of international organizations have taken up the before mentioned issues by publishing extensive surveys and proposals. Given the implications of the demographic challenge for pension systems and, by extension , for public finances, many publications have put particular emphasis on the ensuing effects on fiscal sustainability and on the maintenance of sustainable public finances. This