[Rewards and risks of regulating retirement age].

Life course sociology differs on its position towards age limits, with Kohli stressing their morality and functionality, whereas Riley/Riley focus on their age differentiating and dysfunctional effects. Empirically, the German development of retirement age regulation between 1970 and the early 1990s demonstrates how a short sighted and maladjusted age limit policy can disrupt the legitimacy and the finances of retirement systems. Problems for a fixation of an adequate age limit arise from corporate interests, adaptation mechanisms of retirement systems, and from the heterogeneity of older workers. Surprisingly, contrary to most life course theories and despite general economic difficulties, since 1996 we have observed institutional reforms that empirically result in a rise in German retirement age which is accompanied by increased standardization of the transition from work to retirement. The unforeseen effectiveness of policies directed at age limits to influence the adaptability of retirement systems via duration regulation constitutes an interesting field of new forms of predictable life course policy.