Late-in-life investments in human capital: evidence on the (unintended) effects of a pension reform

Abstract

This paper studies whether forced increases in the residual working life, determined by a restrictive pension reform, induce additional training activities. By exploiting a sizable Italian pension reform, in a difference-in-differences setting, I find that a lengthening of the working horizon increases, through training, workers’ human capital. Additionally, I show that the response to the reform appears very heterogeneous and depends on gender, age, education, marital status, sector of employment and firm size. My estimates suggest, furthermore, that these individual positive effects are not attributable to employers’ sponsorship.