Labor Market Impacts of Non-Contributory Pensions: The Case of Argentina's Moratorium

Argentina had traditionally enjoyed one of the highest elderly coverage rates in Latin America. However, since the mid-1990s coverage rates started a steady decline, especially for low income workers. In response, the Argentine government implemented a series of sweeping reforms in the mid-2000s. Central to these reforms was a program known as the 'Moratorium,' which allowed workers of retirement age to receive a pension regardless of whether they had completed the full 30 years of required social security contributions through formal employment. This paper studies the labor market effects of this reform. Using Argentina's Continuous Permanent Household Survey (EPHC), we employ a difference-in-difference technique to compare elderly individuals just above and below the retirement age, before and after the pension reform.