The Portfolio Effect of Pension Reforms

We estimate the portfolio effect of changes in social security wealth exploiting a decade of Italian pension reforms as a source of exogenous variation. The Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth records detailed portfolio data and elicits expectations of retirement outcomes, thus allowing us to measure the expected social security wealth and to assess to what extent Italian households perceive the innovations brought about by the reforms. We find that households have responded to the cut in pension benefits mostly by increasing real estate wealth, and that the response is stronger among households that are able to estimate more accurately future social security benefits. We also compute that for the average household consumable wealth increases by 40 percent of the reduction in social security wealth.Pension Reform, Portfolio Choice, Retirement Saving

Retirement Expectations and Pension Reforms

We estimate the effect of pension reforms on households' expectations and wealth accumulation decisions. We rely on self-reported expectations to measure perceived social security benefits and to a series of pension reforms as a source of exogenous variations in pension wealth. Two parameters are crucial to estimate pension wealth: the age at which workers expect to retire and the ratio of pension benefits to pre-retirement income (the replacement rate). The Survey of Household Income and Wealth, a large representative sample of the Italian population, elicits these expectations from 1989 to 2000, a period spanning intense pension reforms. These reforms had different impact on different cohorts and employment groups, providing a quasi-experimental framework to study the effect of pension reforms on expectations and household saving. We find substantial offset between private wealth and perceived pension wealth. However, the Italian pension reforms of the 1990s had only limited impact on household saving rates, because people have not yet fully adjusted their expectations of future benefitsbusiness groups, financially constrained entry, internal capital markets, multimarket competition

Retirement Expectations, Pension Reforms, and Their Impact on Private Wealth Accumulation

We estimate the effect of pension reforms on households’ expectations of retirement outcomes and private wealth accumulation decisions exploiting a decade of intense Italian pension reforms as a source of exogenous variation in expected pension wealth. The Survey of Household Income and Wealth, a large random sample of the Italian population, elicits expectations of the age at which workers expect to retire and of the ratio of pension benefits to pre-retirement income between 1989 and 2002. We find that workers have revised expectations in the direction suggested by the reform and that there is substantial offset between private wealth and perceived pension wealth, particularly by workers that are better informed about their pension wealth.Expectations, Pension Reform

Why do home owners work longer hours?

This paper uses a structural model to address the question of why home-owners with large mortgage debt work longer hours than those without such debt. We consider whether this is due to lower net wealth or to capital market imperfections, including mortgage constraints that depend on current earnings and, therefore, labour supply choices. We show that the need to meet current mortgage commitments can generate the observed correlation, and this impact of current commitments arises from the institutional borrowing constraints. We also show that labour supply as a function of household debt is highly nonlinear: those with greater debt are more likely to face binding borrowing constraints and their labour supply is more variable.

Labour market participation and mortgage related borrowing constraints

This paper analyses the relationship between female labour market participation and mortgage commitments in life-cycle set up. In particular it examines whether a mortgage qualification constraint has any effect on female labour market participation. This is done by conditioning on the mortgage decision in a labour market participation equation for married women. Endogeneity of the mortgage variable is tested using house price data. Panel data from the British Household Panel Study is used in order to control for unobserved heterogeneity in participation.Mortgages, labour market participation, women

The Portfolio Effect of Pension Reforms

We estimate the portfolio effect of changes in social security wealth exploiting a decade of Italian pension reforms as a source of exogenous variation. The Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth records detailed portfolio data and elicits expectations of retirement outcomes, thus allowing us to measure the expected social security wealth and to assess to what extent Italian households perceive the innovations brought about by the reforms. We find that households have responded to the cut in pension benefits mostly by increasing real estate wealth, and that the response is stronger among households that are able to estimate more accurately future social security benefits. We also compute that for the average household consumable wealth increases by 40 percent of the reduction in social security wealth.Pension Reform, Portfolio Choice, Retirement Saving

Labour Supply Responses to Financial Wealth Shocks: Evidence from in Italy

We look at how strongly shocks to asset values affect labour supply, using Italian data. We use asset price shocks to provide a measure of wealth changes that is exogenous to households\u2019 saving and labour supply. Our results point to significant effects of wealth on hours of work and on whether or not agents leave their jobs. The magnitude of these effects can be substantial, for example for those individuals who suffered larger wealth losses during the financial crisis. Family effects reflect similar responses from men and women on average. Older working-age individuals drive the population results

Wealth Effects and the Consumption of Italian Households in the Great Recession

We estimate marginal propensities to consume from wealth shocks for Italian households in the early part of the Great Recession. Large asset price shocks in 2008 underpin an IV estimator. A euro fall in risky financial wealth resulted in cuts in annual total (non‐durable) consumption of 8.5‐9 (5.5‐5.7) cents. There is evidence of effects on food spending. Responses of total and nondurable spending to changes in housing wealth are 0.2 to 0.3 cents/euro. Point estimates of the effect of the financial wealth shock are larger if the youngest and/or oldest households are excluded. Results indicate that responses to the wealth shock were stronger for those who became pessimistic about the stock market, and for those owners of risky assets who also held mortgage debt. Counterfactuals indicate financial wealth effects were important (relative to other factors) for consumption falls in Italy in 2007/08

Labour supply responses to financial wealth shocks: evidence from Italy

We look at how strongly shocks to asset values affect labour supply, using Italian data. We use asset price shocks to provide a measure of wealth changes that is exogenous to households’ saving and labour supply. Our results point to significant effects of wealth on hours of work and on whether or not agents leave their jobs. The magnitude of these effects can be substantial, for example for those individuals who suffered larger wealth losses during the financial crisis. Family effects reflect similar responses from men and women on average. Older working-age individuals drive the population results