Collateral effects of a pension reform in France.

Summary We measure the effects of the 1993 French pension reform on health, especially the reform has gradually increased the length of the contribution period required to benefit from a full pension, as well as the number of earnings years taken into account to calculate pension benefits. Most importantly, the reform heterogeneously has affected different cohorts of individuals, creating a quasi-experimental framework. Given that this reform concerned only private sector workers, we use the results of a survey on health ran in 2005 and a difference-in-differences analysis to compare health outcomes between two population samples, one composed of private sector workers and another of public sector workers. The results show significant differences between these two samples in two health measures – perceived health and physical health – but concentrated on less-educated individuals exclusively.