October 2021
22Oct

Designing a pension system

By Vincenzo Galasso Designing a pension system is both a complex endeavor and a long lasting legacy. Complexity stems from the many trade-offs that conceiving a pension system entail and from how these initial decisions affect the social and economic behavioral responses of workers and retirees. Policy-makers planning a pension system have to evaluate its internal economic consistency, but also these feedbacks. Economic and demographic models that allow a quantitative evaluation of these costs and benefits are required. More than...

October 22, 2021
Articles, Pension design, , ,
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March 2021
12Mar

Italy. Pension funds seize first Italian green bonds offering

Pension funds and insurance companies snatched up the largest share of green bonds (14.3%) issued by the Italian government among the investors with a long-term investment horizon, the Finance Ministry said in a note. Central banks and government institutions bought the remaining 10% of the total 24.3% of the green bonds allocated to long-term financial investors, it added. Hedge funds secured 3.6%, while fund managers acquired 53.1% of the total green bonds issued, with banks underwriting 18.5%. A total of 530 investors...

March 12, 2021
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February 2021
24Feb

Italy. Pension funds pull positive returns in 2020 despite pandemic

The pension fund for management staff of oil and gas company ENI has recorded positive results for all its investment options last year. The performance of its garantito assicurativo fund stood at 1.71%, 11.28% for the last five years. Its bilanciato (balanced) fund recorded a positive performance of 3.44% in 2020, with a 13.52% for the past five years. Fopdire’s dinamico fund hit 5.20% last year, reacing a 21.70% figure for the last five years. On average annually, for the...

February 24, 2021
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December 2020

23Dec

Four Italian pension funds unite for major push into private debt

Four Italian pension funds have combined their efforts to find an alternative investment manager to oversee mandates related to private debt. The funds – Fondo Gomma Plastica, Fopen, Pegaso and Previmoda – have a total of €195m in commitments, which will result in a core strategy or unitranche corporate direct lending, with other strategies being added residually. The group said the tender, known as the Zefiro Project, will focus mainly on the European Economic Area with particular attention on...

December 23, 2020
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October 2020

15Oct

Workforce Aging, Pension Reforms, and Firm Outcomes

By Francesca Carta, Francesco D’Amuri, Till Von Wachter Raising statutory retirement ages has been a popular policy to increase the labor supply of older workers in the face of population aging. In this paper, we quantify the effect of a sharp and unexpected increase in retirement ages on firms’ input mix and economic outcomes using Italian administrative and survey data on employment, wages, value added and capital. Exploiting information on lifetime pension contributions for the universe of employees, we...

October 15, 2020
Articles, Labor Market, Regulation, , , , ,
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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
Aging, Articles, Labor Market, , , ,
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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
Articles, System Sustainability, , ,
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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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