Abstract

The paper analyses the impact of the 1995 Italian pension reform twenty years after its enactment, assessing its positive effect on the public budget and its shortcomings, in particular those linked to the worsened conditions of the labor market and to the ageing of the Italian population. The author indicates the need for legislative changes such as measures aimed at favoring forms of flexible retirement, at correcting the negative impact of discontinuous working careers and of low wages on the amount of pensions, at introducing means tested benefits thus increasing the selectivity of some welfare transfers and at reducing the length and the amount of unemployment benefits and short time benefits.