January 2020

24Jan

Italy readies pension reform, may end early retirement scheme ahead of schedule

Italy is preparing to reform its pension system again to make it more flexible for those who want to leave work early, officials say, and the changes may include ending ahead of time a costly but underused 2018 plan that lowered the minimum retirement age. With a steadily growing army of retirees, pensions in Italy are a national obsession and one of the most frequently debated topics on television talk shows. Under the 2018 “quota 100” plan, people can...

January 24, 2020
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10Jan

Demographic Obstacles to European Growth

By: Thomas F. Cooley, Espen Henriksen, Charlie Nusbaum Since the early 1990’s the growth rates of the four largest European economies—France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom—have slowed. This persistent slowdown suggests a low-frequency structural change is at work. A combination of longer individual life expectancies and declining fertility have led to gradually ageing populations. Demographic change affects economic growth directly through households savings and labor supply decisions and also growth indirectly through the pension systems and the need to...

January 10, 2020
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May 2019

24May

Economic Growth and the Public Sector: A Comparison of Canada and Italy, 1870-2013

By Livio Di Matteo, T. P. Barbiero There is considerable evidence that the size of the public sector can influence an economy’s rate of economic growth. We investigate public sector spending of central governments and economic performance in two G7 countries over the long-term, Canada and Italy. Their economic performance has diverged in the last 25 years and it is worth investigating whether the size of government was a contributing factor. We find that in both the case of...

May 24, 2019
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February 2019

07Feb

IMF warns Italy over plans to lower retirement age

The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday criticised Italy's plans to lower the retirement age, saying they would cut the country's growth potential and add to an already high pension bill. In a report following its annual Article IV meetings with Italian authorities, the IMF also criticised aspects of the new income support scheme which is the government's other flagship reform, though it backed the thrust of the measure. IMF directors "underscored the need to protect the poor by means...

February 7, 2019
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December 2018

17Dec

Italian Premier Wins Populist Support for Budget Offer to EU

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte forged a deal with populist leaders to submit a revised budget proposal to the European Commission, in a bid to avert fines against Italy. Conte’s euroskeptic deputies Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio, who hold most of the political power in the administration, set aside their opposition to concessions at talks running late into Sunday night and agreed on a new package to send to Brussels, government officials said. Investors aren’t pricing in a deal just yet...

December 17, 2018
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14Dec

Welfare, pensions to be revised to meet Italian deficit target

Italy’s government will cut “a few billion” euros from its two main reforms in order to hit the new deficit target it proposed to the European Commission, Deputy Industry Minister Dario Galli said on Thursday. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday and offered to lower Italy’s deficit target for next year to 2.04 percent of gross domestic product from 2.4 percent previously to avoid disciplinary action from the EU. “A few billions (in savings) compared...

December 14, 2018
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November 2017

27Nov

Life-Cycle Labour Supply and Social Security Wealth: Evidence from the 1995 Italian Pension Reform

By Giulia Bovini (London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Economics) This paper studies life-cycle labour supply responses to lower social security wealth. An over-arching pension reform implemented in Italy in 1995 (the Dini pension reform) provides the setting for the analysis. While ushering the transition from a defined-benefit (DB) to a notional defined-contribution (NDC) scheme, it introduced discontinuities in the social security replacement rate based uniquely on years of qualifying retirement contributions accrued by the...

November 27, 2017
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21Nov

Italy. CGIL declares action over pensions

Susanna Camusso, the leader of Italy's biggest trade-union confederation, the leftwing CGIL, said Tuesday that the union will take action on December 2 due to the "great inadequacies" of the government's proposals on pensions and retirement. But the big three trade unions were split, with UIL and CISL expressing satisfaction after talks with Premier Paolo Gentiloni's government. CGIL wants an increase in the retirement age to 67, set to kick in in 2019, to be postponed, saying many people doing...

November 21, 2017
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