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Italy’s population is one of the oldest in the world. To counteract the impact of population ageingon the financial viability of the pension system, over the last 20 years the Italian pension systemhas undergone a number of reforms aiming mostly at increasing the statutory retirement age. Weestimate working life expectancy by gender, occupational category and area of residence for theperiod 2003 to 2013, using data from the longitudinal sample INPS (LoSaI), a random samplefrom the National Institute of Social Security (INPS). Moreover, we analyze the impact of theeconomic recession on working life expectancy. Our estimates, based on a discrete-time Markovchain approach, consider the full life cycle from age 15 onwards, whereas most comparablestudies focus only on old age. We found strong differences in working life expectancy betweenmales and females, as well as between occupational categories and by area of residence. Theeffects of the economic crisis were and are striking.

Ageing, Retirement, Markov chain, Working life expectancy