Abstract

Given the prominent role of the pension spending on public finances, this paper provides an overview of trends of the expenditure in Italy and in the EU-15. In the first step, the public pension spending, both as a share of GDP and expressed per capita in PPS, is observed. The figures indicate that the countries with the highest pension spending per capita do not coincide with those with the highest pension expenditure to GDP ratio. Furthermore, EU countries are characterized by various systems of taxation on pensions that ensure different impacts on public finances. In order to evaluate the impact of pension reforms, in the second step, the main findings of the long-term projections on public pensions spending and on the effective exit age from the labour market are shown. The analysis of the public cash spending on social protection in Italy concludes the paper.