This volume is part of a series of monographs on private pensions in OECD countries. Previous titles have considered the situation of Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Private pensions occupy a central role in the French system of retirement provision. In addition to a high degree of institutional fragmentation, the general structure of the French pension system combines two tiers. The first consists of statutory social security plans, set up to cover the whole of the working population, and “special plans”, exempted from participation in the general schemes and almost exclusively covering the public sector. The second tier is made up of supplementary occupational plans, mainly compulsory plans federated at the national level. The extensive role of these compulsory occupational plans has left little room for the development of other voluntary occupational pension plans.

A number of features make the specificity of the second tier in ...