History of the Italian pension system from 1971 to 1991: Towards the economic-financial crisis

This paper aims to analyze the Italian pension system in the period between 1971 and 1991, highlighting the factors that contributed to producing a financial crisis that cast doubt on the sustainability of the entire pension structure. The measures put in place to contain expenditure, such as the raising of the age for ob-taining an old age pension and the revision of the pension calculation method, will be illustrated, showing how they were only adopted by the legislature after a dec-ade since they were formulated. The analyses carried out show that not even the contribution from the state to compensate for the inadequacy of contribution rev-enues was sufficient to cover pension expenditure. Thus, the deficits accumulated by the pension schemes were the natural consequence of a failure to periodically adjust contribution rates. This measure was considered necessary to cope with the effects of certain regulations which automatically adjusted pensions and im-proved the extension of benefits.