Peter Lindert inquires as to whether social policies that redistribute income impose
constraints on economic growth. Although taxes and transfers have been debated for …

This paper examines the main determinants of the decision to retire from the labour market
in OECD countries, and in particular the role of social security systems in driving down the …

Since the 1970s early exit from work has become a major challenge in modern welfare
states. Governments, employers, and unions alike once thought of early retirement as a …

This paper provides new evidence on the substitutability between private and pension
wealth by exploiting the Italian pension reform of 1992. We use a difference-in-difference …

In almost every industrialized country, the population is aging rapidly, and individuals are
living longer. The ratio of the number of persons age 65 and over to the number age 20-64 is …

Welfare state reform A survey of what Europeans want The fundamental problems facing
European welfare states–high unemployment and unsustainable public pensions plans in …

Over the next few decades there will be significant changes in the demographic structure of
nearly all developed countries. Such dramatic demographic change could have a powerful …

All across Europe, old age labor force participation has declined dramatically during the last
decades. This secular trend coincides with population aging. The European social security …

More than 80% of Italian men aged 18–30 live with their parents. We argue that one
contributing factor to this remarkably high rate of cohabitation is parents' tastes for …

We estimate the effect of pension reforms on households' expectations of retirement
outcomes and private wealth accumulation decisions exploiting a decade of intense Italian …