1 Fifth Session Pension Wealth and Housing Eliana Viviano Rome, July 5-7, 2007 BANCA D’ITALIA EUROSISTEMA The Luxembourg Wealth Study: Enhancing Comparative Research on Household Finance

2 “Retirement patterns in Europe: The effect of health” (Brugiavini, Croda, Peracchi) Aim of the paper: –Model labour supply of older workers –Crucial issue (e.g. for the Lisbon Agenda) By using SHARE –A measure of SS wealth –A measure of health Endogeneity of SSW and health

3 IV –SSW: Occupational indicators –Health: retrospective questions They find: SSW and health affect retirement decisions Lisbon goals reached if policies make more attractive to continue working “Retirement patterns in Europe: The effect of health” (Brugiavini, Croda, Peracchi)

4 Suggestions for future developments Enforcing the IV strategy –Occupational indicators typically reflect labour market conditions which may also affect individual decision to retire –Is past health status (e.g. being depressed) exogenous to retirement? Maybe it affects also expected future health and decisions to retire today “Retirement patterns in Europe: The effect of health” (Brugiavini, Croda, Peracchi)

5 And a more general methodological question: How to deal with country-specific incentives to work, different labor market conditions, taxation, preferences about leisure, ect? Dummies may not fully satisfactory “Retirement patterns in Europe: The effect of health” (Brugiavini, Croda, Peracchi) (Econometrician have to deal with data constraints, small sample size, ect.)

6 “Pension wealth in the Canadian context: Lessons for LWS” (Palardy, Van Rompaey) Statistics on pension wealth are important for policy-makers They are useful for analyzing wealth (they are now included in the Canadian estimates of net worth aggregates of the SFS) Occupational pension funds (the single most important asset of Canadian households)

7 “Pension wealth in the Canadian context: Lessons for LWS” (Palardy, Van Rompaey) Exclusion / Inclusion in total net wealth AFFECTS LEVELS, DISTRIBUTION, COMPOSITION IT AFFECTS INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS –LWS vs. Canada, US (if pw is included) –Canada vs US The paper: look at the full spectrum of household savings

8 What about Europe? The composition of pension wealth is very heterogeneous not only when comparing US, Canada and Europe, but also within European countries Public pension provisions are “country specific” ……but also… Occupational pension funds are “country specific”: –In some countries private occupational pensions do not exist (e.g. France) –In other countries they have been recently established (e.g. IT, absent in new EU members) –Many times they do not cover all employees but just part of them and only some sectors Individual retirement accounts are “country specific” –E.g. in some countries tax exemptions –(But in general less problematic: more standardized products)

9 We need a measure of pension wealth based on micro-data on pensions Trying to mediate between comparability/homogeneity and… National specific features: crucial to understand household and individual behaviour and welfare What about researchers and data producers?

10 Thank you!