Ageing on the job: How raising retirement age affects work accidents

As populations age, many countries have increased the statutory retirement age to sustain pension systems and maintain labor supply. This article examines whether delayed retirement increases workplace accident risks, a potentially important but underexplored cost of pension reforms. We exploit the 2012 Italian pension reform — which sharply tightened eligibility requirements and abruptly raised the retirement age — to estimate its causal effects using administrative data on private-sector employees. Leveraging firm-level variation in exposure to the reform, we identify the impact of delayed retirement on both older workers compelled to remain employed and their coworkers. The reform led to a modest but statistically significant increase in sick leave due to occupational injuries equivalent to 2.6% of the pre-reform mean. This effect mainly reflects the direct impact on retained older workers, with no evidence of spillovers to coworkers. While the aggregate effect is limited, the adverse consequences are highly unevenly distributed, being concentrated in small firms (fewer than 15 employees) and in sectors with high physical or cognitive demands, such as manufacturing and professional or technical services. Overall, our findings highlight occupational safety as a potentially hidden and distributional cost of pension reforms aimed at extending working lives.