Publications
Retirement and Household Financial headship: Evidence from England. Economics Letters, 113016 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2026.113016.
Financial distress during the pandemic: the role of government support. Joint with Gugliemo Weber and Nancy Zambon. Fiscal Studies, 1–21 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.70008
Education and Persistence of Earnings Shocks. Joint with Chiara Dal Bianco. Economics Letters, 196 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109527
Paper Under Review and Working Papers
Saving and Spending Regrets at Retirement. Joint with Stefano Castaldo, Martina Celidoni, Guglielmo Weber and Nancy Zambon. R&R (The Economic Journal)
Abstract: In this paper, we study how retirement affects the individual’s saving/spending regrets. Using the second wave of the SHARE Corona survey we find that newly retired people are more likely to report no regrets and less likely to exhibit saving regrets than workers. Heterogeneity analyses show that the effect of retirement is more pronounced post-pandemic, in countries with pension systems that impose more demanding pension access criteria, and among those with limited financial literacy. Lastly, early retirees and statutory retirees exhibit opposite effects of retirement: while the former report higher saving regrets at retirement, the latter have a lower propensity to show saving regrets at that time.
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Women Caring Penalty at Retirement in Europe. Joint with Paola Profeta. R&R (Demography)
Abstract: We study the effect of (informal) care provision patterns on late-life access to economic resources among women using SHARE data. We find that the earnings drop among women who retired to take care of a relative are about twice the drop of women who retired for other reasons. Moreover, these effects are persistent for at least 7 years after retirement. This result sheds light on part of the unexplained lifetime earnings and the pension gender gap.
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Too Old to Train?Age Differences in Employer-Provided Training:Experimental Evidence from Italian SMEs. Joint with Olivia Masi and Paola Profeta. R&R (Journal of the Economics of Ageing)
Abstract: Older workers are among the most expensive employees on firms’ payrolls — yetthey are systematically the least likely to receive employer-provided training. This paperinvestigates the managerial decisions that generate this paradox through two complementary surveys conducted among Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Thefirst survey documents a strong, monotonic age gradient in training allocation: employees’probability of being selected for training decreases sharply with age. Motivated bythese findings, the second survey introduces a randomized information treatment: managersreceive information on labor-force aging, rising retirement ages, and the remaining working life of older workers. This information does not reduce managers’ age gradientin training allocation, suggesting that this bias is sustained by mechanisms other than simple horizon-based considerations.
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Survival and Financial Literacy in Investment Decisions Later in Life. Joint with Chiara Dal Bianco, Francesca Parodi and Guglielmo Weber.
Abstract: We document that the underestimation of subjective survival probabilities negatively affects investments in risky assets in the UK context. We then explore the role of cognitive skills in explaining this negative relationship. More precisely, we disentangle a direct effect of cognitive skills on investments in risky assets through entry costs and an indirect effect through survival probability underestimation. We calibrate a life-cycle model to quantify the importance of survival probability underestimation on sub-optimal ownership of risky assets. Using subjective survival curves instead of life table probabilities results in a lower asset accumulation and lower investment in risky assets. These findings suggest that policy interventions aimed at increasing financial literacy are likely to affect the decision to own risky assets not only by reducing entry costs but also by attenuating survival risk underestimation.
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Ongoing Projects
Elder labour workforce job preference. Joint with Vincenzo Galasso.
Ageing, Commuting and Fertility: an Efficient Housing Allocation.
Other refereed publications
"Effects of Covid-related economic support on households financial distress", joint with Debdeep Chattopadhyay , Greta Pesaresi and Guglielmo Weber (2023). In Axel Börsch-Supan, Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak, Anita Abramowska-Kmon, Florence Jusot, Šime Smolić, Karen Andersen-Ranberg, Agar Brugiavini, Guglielmo Weber, Howard Litwin, Life of people aged 50+ during the Covid-19 pandemic: First results from the SHARE Corona Surveys.