Italian Pensions from “Vices” to Challenges: Assessing Actuarial Multi-pillarization Twenty Years on
Capitolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2017
Citazione:
Italian Pensions from “Vices” to Challenges: Assessing Actuarial Multi-pillarization Twenty Years on / M. Jessoula, M. Raitano - In: The New Pension Mix in Europe : Recent Reforms, Their Distributional Effects and Political Dynamics / [a cura di] D. Natali. - Prima edizione. - Bruxelles : Peter Lang, 2017. - ISBN 9782807602656.
Abstract:
The development trajectory of the Italian pension system is prototypical of most Continental and South European countries: from Bismarckian origins to a fully-fledged single-pillar pension system after the Golden Age, up until the late transition to a still very incomplete multi-pillar architecture during the last two decades (Jessoula 2009, 2012).
An early start was made with the introduction of compulsory public insurance against the risks of old age and disability for civil servants/public-sector employees (1864) and private-sector blue-collar workers (1919). In the 1950s and 1960s, pension expansion followed three main trajectories: (i) subsequent extension of compulsory insurance in order to include all professional categories – full coverage of the employed population was reached by the mid-1960s; (ii) a shift to an earnings-related system for private sector employees (1968) and the self-employed (1990); (iii) the introduction of both the minimum pension supplement (1952) and the social (assistance) pension (1969) to combine the traditional goal of income maintenance with the prevention of poverty.
While this trajectory was similar to that of other Bismarckian countries in Europe, the process in Italy took on peculiar traits. The expansionary reforms actually contributed to building a fully-fledged single-pillar pension system which presented remarkable regulatory differences between the various occupational categories, allowed to retire earlier than in most European countries (especially owing to seniority pensions allowing retirement before pensionable age), and provided comparatively generous benefits – the earnings-related formula guaranteed replacement rates of around 75 per cent after 40 years of insurance. Supplementary pensions were de facto crowded out by high public pension replacement rates coupled with the existence of a mandatory severance payment for both public and private employees (Trattamento di fine rapporto – Tfr). Thus, until the mid-1990s, private pensions were virtually unknown and there was no such thing as “pension mix” in Italy (Jessoula, 2011a).
As for the triggers of such remarkable expansion of pensions during the Trente Glorieuses, it was the result of very peculiar competitive dynamics in the Italian “First Republic”, which was actually characterized by an ideologically polarized and fragmented party system (“polarized pluralism”, cf. Sartori, 1966) and a “blocked” democracy (i.e. democracy with no alternation in power). In this framework, weak and unstable Italian cabinets had incentives to respond to the (often micro-) corporatist pressures arising from interest groups, by multiplying particularistic regulations and distributing advantages and benefits to those social categories whose electoral support was particularly important, not only for government survival but also for the full consolidation and stabilization of the democratic regime (Ferrera et al., 2012). The occupational character of the pensions system provided fertile ground for such political exchanges in a context where, on the one hand, competition was harsh among the parties forming governmental majorities – the Christian Democrats (Dc) and its three/four allies – and leftist parties, in primis the Communist Party (Pci); on the other, a parallel competition unfolded between the main trade unions – Cgil, Cisl, Uil – characterized by different ideological orientations and political strategies. By exploiting different “channels” of influence, labour organizations have thus traditionally had a crucial voice in pension policymaking, often representing the main triggers of expansionary policies.
While three decades of continuous pension expansion were key to substantially reducing poverty
Tipologia IRIS:
03 - Contributo in volume
Keywords:
pensions; reform; Italy; assessment; public pensions; supplementary pensions
Elenco autori:
M. Jessoula, M. Raitano
Link alla scheda completa:
Titolo del libro:
The New Pension Mix in Europe : Recent Reforms, Their Distributional Effects and Political Dynamics