by InTrieste
The Department of Economic, Business, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (DEAMS) at the University of Trieste will host economist Elsa Fornero on Monday for a public seminar on social policies and economic growth, with a particular focus on Italy’s pension system and the intergenerational pact that sustains it.
The event will take place on Monday, October 27 at 3:30 p.m. in Room 1B, first floor of Building H3, Piazzale Europa Campus. The seminar, organized by DEAMS, is primarily intended for students but is open to the entire university community and to members of the public interested in understanding one of the most pressing and debated issues in Italy’s economic future.
Fornero, Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Turin and former Minister of Labor and Social Policies, will address the demographic, economic, and equity-based challenges that make pension reform an ongoing necessity in Italy. She will emphasize that adjusting such a complex system—one that affects long-standing rules, habits, and acquired rights—is not merely a technical task but a social process requiring broad consensus.
A key theme of her talk will be the importance of transparency and financial literacy. Fornero will underscore the need to provide workers with clear information about their own “pension wealth” and to pair any reform effort with widespread financial education. Only by combining accurate information and economic understanding, she argues, can citizens grasp the logic behind reform—reducing generational imbalances, strengthening financial sustainability, and limiting systemic distortions and privileges—while ensuring its long-term political viability.
Fornero, who held the Chair of Political Economy at the University of Turin until 2018, served as Minister of Labor and Social Policies (with responsibility for Equal Opportunities) in the Monti government (2011–2013). She later joined the Economic Policy Advisory Council at Palazzo Chigi under Prime Minister Mario Draghi (2021–2022). In addition to her academic and policy work, she is a regular keynote speaker, a columnist for La Stampa, and a frequent television commentator. Her publications include Chi ha paura delle riforme. Illusioni, luoghi comuni e verità sulle pensioni (Università Bocconi Editore, 2018).
