Current Features and Future Problems of the Italian Pension System

The paper analyzes the issue of the financial sustainability of the Italian Pension System in the long-run, by discussing the main reforms occurred in the last few years and by examining some recent data: in particular, the data of the Italian Agency for the Evaluation of Social Security Expenditure on the budget of specific funds of the Social Security System, like the Fund for Private Employees and the Funds for Public Employees, and moreover the OECD data on the evolution of the replacement rate between pension benefit and labour income. Observing the evolution over the period 1989-2006, we notice that the current deficit of the first pillar of the pension system is caused, much more than in the past, by the deficit of the Funds for Public Employees, for the relevant difference between the value of the benefits and of the contributions, which is not registered in the other funds.pay-as-you-go system ; retirement age ; defined contribution ; financial sustainability ; replacement rate ; private pension funds