Saving for retirement and retirement investment choices

Abstract

In this paper we focus on the recent restructuring of the Italian pension system and in particular on the reforms concerning the tax-favored retirement saving accounts. These reforms issued in the early and mid- 1990s reduced the riskiness of private retirement saving plans and their overall cost. We find that private pension saving incentives had little if any effect on household savings. Further, those workers who have experienced the most severe public pension cut are not significantly more likely to contribute to a private retirement plan, ceteris paribus. We find, however, that the pension fund legislation had a strong effect on the allocation of savings and triggered substantial substitution of non-tax-favored nonretirement wealth for tax-favored pension funds.household savings, pension funds, social security reforms, difference-in-difference estimation