Employment rates among senior workers (aged 55 or over) in southern Europe are among the lowest in OECD economies. Spain is a paradigmatic example, with high unemployment rates and very low workforce reentry rates for unemployed workers. Poor demand is typically blamed for this problem, but the...

Using high-frequency Italian administrative data, the author studies the heterogeneous effects of a reform raising the normal retirement age (NRA) from 60 years to 65 years for private-sector male employees. The analysis, based on a difference-in-differences (DD) method, shows that the NRA raise...