Abstract
This paper examines the age at retirement for men and women in Italy. Despite the expansion of women’s educational attainments, they still display lower employment rates, are frequently engaged in involuntary part-time jobs and have more fragmented careers. As a consequence, the mean age at which women receive a pension is higher than that of men. Using Labour Force Survey (2006 and 2012), the authors test the hypothesis that women’s higher age at retirement is determined by a selection bias towards more educated and work oriented women. A Heckman selection model has been developed. Results show that the main disadvantage is suffered by women with medium and low levels of education who show the highest estimated age at retirement, whereas higher educated women retire on average before men with the same level of education. The authors argue that pension policies, without interventions in the field of work-life balance policies, end up penalizing women with lower levels of education.
Highlights
The many studies that have addressed the relationship between women and the labor market in Italy have focused on gender inequalities such as the lower rates of activity and employment of women, the inequality in the salaries men and women receive, and the difficulties faced by women in terms of work-life balance
Little has been done to investigate the gender differences relating to the conclusion of working life and retirement age
The analysis has shown that the self-selection of women with high levels of education hides the big disadvantage faced by women with low and medium levels of education
Summary
Pension reforms in most industrialized countries in recent years, principally aimed at ensuring financial sustainability, have adopted rules aimed at rebalancing gender differences, albeit in a non-uniform manner and producing outcomes that have not always been in line with expectations (Jefferson 2009; Natali and Stamati, 2013). Many studies have highlighted the particular exposure of women to part-time jobs, and the greater fragmentation of their professional careers due to an unequal distribution of care activities within the family, resulting in marked gender differences, both in relation to the average value of their pension income in terms of contribution years and their average age at retirement (Scherer and Reyneri, 2008). This last aspect especially sees women retire, on average, at a higher age than men. Using the Heckman procedure, from the probit equation on the probability of being employed, we estimate the Inverse Mill’s ratio which, if statistically significant, confirms the presence of self-selection of the sample and is used in the second equation to correct the estimates obtained by linear regression
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
