What is the future of social systems in OECD countries ? In our view, the answer belongs to the realm of politics. We evaluate how political constraints shape the social security system in six countries - France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US - under population aging. Two main aspects...

This paper analyzes to what extent gender culture affects gender gap in employment. Drawing on Italian data, we measure culture by building two indices: one based on individual attitudes, as done in the existing literature; one based on firms’ attitudes. Firms’ beliefs, which express their...

The two papers give a full analysis of Latin American taxaton since 1990 up to day. One paper deals with counry cases. Those examinated regard Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costarica, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay. For each country tax trends are examinated, starting by 1990 or before. Then...

How do demographic factors influence retirement? Using a large cross-country data set, I show that in countries with a larger share of elderly in their population the length of retirement is longer. This result holds true if I control for wealth effects, and when the effective labor force...

We suggest a political economy explanation for the stylized fact that intragenerationally more redistributive social security systems are smaller. Our key insight is that linking benefits to past earnings (less redistributiveness) reduces the efficiency cost of social security (due to endogenous...

In 2001 the Italian government introduced a personal income tax reform to be implemented in successive phases. In 2004 taxes were reduced to all income levels with higher gains for low-income and high-income individuals than for middle-income ones. A large debate arised. This paper explores the...

This paper is part of a wider research concerning taxation systems an reforms carried on ar the Departemnt of Pubic economics of the Uiversity of Pavia -I taly. These country studies refer to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay and are due to eminent...

Why are social security transfers associated with retirement rules? This paper focuses on the political interactions between retirement and social security. Using a probabilistic voting approach, it analyzes why old people are induced to retire in order to receive pension transfers from the...

We suggest a political economy explanation for the stylized fact that intragenerationally more redistributive social security systems are smaller. We relate the stylized fact to an "efficiencyredistribution" trade-off to be resolved by political process. The inefficiency of social security...