Bianca Balsimelli Ghelli (University of Southampton)
Giovanni Peri and Michele Raitano
In this paper we examine whether larger local availability of immigrants working in the care sector increased the employment probability of Italian women at the time of a pension reform that mandated higher retirement age. Most women in Italy care for their elderly parents around the time of retirement (60-65) and the availability of Immigrants providing care services could allow them to absorb the increased mandatory retirement age, while remaining employed, rather than inactive. We use surveys and administrative data on individual labor market trajectories over the period 2007–2015 to answer the question. Our identification strategy relies on a triple-difference approach comparing women born after 1952, affected by the reform, with the immediately earlier cohort, not exposed to it, interacted with the local supply of immigrant workers in the domestic sector, pre and post the 2011 reform. We find that, in areas with a higher presence of immigrants in care services, women subject to the reform delayed retirement while remaining employed at higher rates relative to women living in areas with a lower availability of such services who became inactive while waiting for the higher retirement age. These effects were stronger for women with lower levels of education, and with lower income.