The Effects of Pension Reforms on Health Inequality in Italy

Using data from the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), we explore whether the recent pension reforms enacted in Italy had an impact on the inequality in health among individuals. We construct a set of indexes measuring several health outcomes (both physical and mental) and analyze their evolution along time (across SHARE waves) from 2004 to 2022, by relating them to the households’ income. While we can observe some differences in the health-income gradient between genders, we do not find evidence of a positive relationship between the introduction of the pension reforms and an increase in inequality.