Abstract

The article analyses gender differences in the retirement age in Italy, focusing on two main factors: educational attainment and family structure, the latter referring to the burden of caring activities within the family and to the partner's employment status. Aiming to identify some regularities in women's retirement patterns and to highlight differences emerging in comparison to men, a Heckman selection model with maximum likelihood estimates has been applied, focusing on 2006 and 2012 data of the European Labour Force Survey, which include an ad hoc module on retirement. Analysis confirm that female retirement age exceeds that of men and grows as the level of education decreases, despite the correction for the sample selection. Therefore, educational attainment affects men's and women's retirement behaviours in a different way. Family care affect women's and men's retirement age in the same manner: the presence of economic dependent children delays labour market exit, while elderly living in the household have an opposite effect. Lastly, the analysis suggests that Italian women's retirement age strongly correlates with their partner's employment status.