Policies

Stefano Castaldo, Martina Celidoni, Francesco Maura, Guglielmo Weber, Nancy Zambon

In this paper, we study how retirement affects the individual’s saving/spending regrets. Using the second wave of the SHARE Corona survey we find that newly retired people are more likely to report no regrets and less likely to exhibit saving regrets than workers. Heterogeneity analyses show that the effect of retirement is more pronounced post-pandemic, in countries with pension systems that impose more demanding pension access criteria, and among those with limited financial literacy. Lastly, early retirees and statutory retirees exhibit opposite effects of retirement: while the former report higher saving regrets at retirement, the latter have a lower propensity to show saving regrets at that time.

Natalia Ordaz Reynoso

I test whether the implementation of the California Paid Family Leave Act increased young womens human capital investment, speci cally college enrollment. Using a synthetic control approach, I estimate that the policy increased the probability that women enroll in college by about 2 percentage points. This e ect is statistically signi cant at the 5% level and persists for at least several years. I present a simple human capital model of womens schooling choices that characterizes these results as the e ect of an expected decrease in the e ects of motherhood on labor supply. Finally, I present evidence from survey data and Internet searches that provides support to the hypothesized mechanism: women are more likely to enroll in college because they expect that the policy will increase their future labor supply.

Francesco Maura, Guglielmo Weber, Nancy Zambon

Fiscal Studies (2025) 

We investigate how (the timing of) economic support measures during the COVID-19 pandemic affected household financial distress across Europeans aged 50 and older. Using SHARE data, we track changes in financial well-being before, during and after the pandemic. Using policy data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker, we distinguish between countries that implemented support at an early versus a later stage. Exploiting a triple-difference identification strategy, we show that timely government interventions significantly reduced financial distress for working-age households experiencing job interruption, while delayed responses led to increased financial strain. The effect is robust to different specificities of the identification strategy. Our findings highlight the importance not only of the generosity, but also of timing of fiscal support in times of crisis.

Paola Profeta

CESifo Economic Studies (2024)

Marta Angelici, Daniela Del Boca, Noemi Oggero, Paola Profeta, Maria Cristina Rossi, Claudia Villosio 

The Journal of Economics of Ageing (2022)

We explore the role of financial and pension information in increasing women’s knowledge and awareness of their future pension status and interest for pension information. We interview a representative sample of 801 Italian working women to assess their knowledge about pensions, financial issues and their own savings. The responses show that their knowledge and awareness of retirement planning is limited. We then run a randomized experiment to evaluate the effect of increased information regarding pensions on women’s awareness, knowledge, and behaviors. Women in the treated group are provided information in the form of three short online tutorials. A follow-up survey shows that these women become more interested and aware of pension schemes and retirement options after completing the tutorials and are more likely to be better informed and keener to obtain further information. When looking at changes in behavior, we find that treated women who are closer to retirement are more likely to believe that they would make different work-life decisions if they received specific pension information in a timely fashion. Middle-aged women are also more likely to have a supplementary pension fund if they are concerned about their standards of living after retirement.

Paola Profeta

CESifo Economic Studies (2020) 

The outbreak of COVID-19 has affected men and women worldwide. The gender dimension of COVID-19 has attracted the attention of researchers and policymakers: while womenseemtobelessseverely hit by the virus and are more compliant with the restricting rules imposed to reduce the spread of the contagion, they risk to suffer more the economic consequences of the pandemic, because they are more vulnerable on the labor market and because they are carrying on most of the burden of housework and childcare which increased substantially during the lockdown. Public policies are required to address the emergency and to deal with its gender implications. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women leaders have performed better than men in dealing with the emergency. This paper explores the evidence on the gender dimension of the pandemic under a new perspective proposed by Profeta (2020), focused on the double relationship between gender equality and public policy: on one side, I show which policies can support gender equality in times of COVID-19 and, on the other side, I explore whether women leadership can promote successful measures. While the evidence provided is only suggestive, future studies should assess causal relationships.

Paola Profeta

Egea

Italian version of the book Gender equality and Public Policy. Measuring Progress in Europe. Cambridge University Press.