Welfare Effects of Social Security Reforms Across Europe : the Case of France and Italy

Abstract

This paper uses a calibrated life cycle model to quantify the distributional effects of Social Security reforms. We focus only on two countries: Italy and France because they adopted two different strategies to cope with aging. While France marginally modified its defined pension plan, Italy switched from a defined pension plan to a contributive system. We find both reforms redistributes welfare unevenly: high skilled workers are the primary winners of the French reform and self employed individuals, especially unskilled workers, are the losers under the new Italian Social Security arrangement.