16.B. Workshop: Retirement reforms and health in an ageing society: outputs of a multi-partner collaboration
Authors:   Organised by: University Vita-Salute San Raffaele (Italy),   Chair persons: Anna Odone - Italy, Chiara Ardito - Italy
Published: October 2020

Although at different paces, life expectancy is increasing in Europe and globally, this impacting on public spending, welfare and pension systems. In an ageing society, to sustain economic growth, reduce public spending and foster the sustainability of pension systems, many countries have recognized the need to increase people employment participation at higher working age. In addition, many nations are implementing large budget reductions to social welfare systems. How will these reforms impact on healthy ageing? It is of concern that the increase in pension age may force subjects with health problems to continue working in jobs characterized by adverse working conditions, which may further deteriorate their health. The workshop will bring together expertise in public health, epidemiology, statistics, policies analysis, economics and quantitative social sciences with topic knowledge on ageing. In particular, we will present the design and outputs of the multi-partner project “Pension reforms and spatial-temporal patterns in healthy ageing: quasi-natural experimental analysis of linked health and pension data”. Aim of the project is to evaluate the impact of labor and retirement-associated determinants on different dimensions of health and wellbeing of elder populations, so as to provide useful evidence to plan, implement and evaluate targeted prevention programmes and welfare policies.

The workshop will be structured as follows: we will first set the scene by introducing a conceptual framework on the association between social determinants, working conditions, transition to retirement and health, both in its physical and mental components. The framework has been developed in the context of the project and fueled by retrieving, pooling and critically appraising the most updated evidence from the biomedical and economic literature. We will then provide two original contributions. In the first we will present original Italian national representative data exploring whether retirement and retirement age are associated with changes in health status, sickness absence, caregiving, social engagement, disease incidence or mortality. In the second contribution we will open up to the European level presenting analysis of secondary household panel surveys across 18 EU countries using Surveys on Health, Retirement and Ageing in Europe (SHARE), as well as specific quasi-natural experiment studies of reforms extending pension ages in different countries. At the end, we hope to engage in a fruitful discussion with the audience on the data presented, and to explore on how they can inform critical policy debates about health and economic consequences of pension reforms and potential inequalities at the European and global level.

Key messages

In an ageing society it is crucial to assess how pension reforms might impact on health. Quasi-natural experimental analysis of linked health and pension data might inform policy.