March 2024

Older Workers, Pension Reforms and Firm Outcomes

By Francesca Carta, Francesco D’Amuri & Till Von Wachter Using Italian matched worker-firm data, this paper quantifies the effect of an exogenous increase in older workers driven by an unexpected raise in statutory retirement ages on medium and large firms' input mix and economic outcomes. Data on lifetime pension contributions are used to calculate the expected additional number of older workers retained by each firm due to the pension reform. Instrumental variable estimates show an increase in older workers leads...

Fertility, mortality, migration, and population scenarios for 195 countries and territories from 2017 to 2100: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study

By Prof Stein Emil Vollset, DrPH, Emily Goren, PhD, Chun-Wei Yuan, PhD, Jackie Cao, MS, Amanda E Smith, MPA, Thomas Hsiao, BS, Catherine Bisignano, MPH, Gulrez S Azhar, PhD, Emma Castro, MS, Julian Chalek, BS, Andrew J Dolgert, PhD, Tahvi Frank, MPH, Kai Fukutaki, BA, Prof Simon I Hay, FMedSci, Prof Rafael Lozano, MD, Prof Ali H Mokdad, PhD, Vishnu Nandakumar, MS, Maxwell Pierce, BS, Martin Pletcher, BS, Toshana Robalik, BSc, Krista M Steuben, MS, Han Yong Wunrow, BSc,...

February 2024

Aging Europe

By Eurostat In this interactive report, Eurostat presents us with the most relevant statistics on the aging population of the European Union, covering aspects such as working life, living conditions, access to health and income. All these statistics are accessible at the regional level and by country in the European Union. Get the report here

January 2024

The Fiscal Cost of Aging in Belgium: Pensions and Healthcare

By Jean-Jacques Hallaert Belgium faces a fiscal consolidation challenge at a time when the fiscal cost of aging—primarily related to pension and health outlays—is mounting. Pension spending will increase relatively fast unless a combination of measures related to pension generosity and retirement eligibility are put in place. Potential efficiency gains are large in the health sector and could absorb part of the fiscal and reorganization costs related to an aging population. Source SSRN

December 2023

Subjective survival beliefs and social networks

By Seung Jeonga, Iqbal Owadallya, Steven Habermana & Douglas Wright People's perceptions about their chances of survival are known to deviate from the objective survival probabilites derived statistically from mortality data. This is crucial because it may explain why people save too little, why their retirement plans are inadequate, and why they do not buy financial security products such as life insurance and annuities which could protect them and their family in the event of early death or in old...

November 2023

Population Aging and the Generational Economy: A Global Perspective

By Ronald Lee & Andrew Mason Over coming decades, changes in population age structure will have profound implications for the macroeconomy, influencing economic growth, generational equity, human capital, saving and investment, and the sustainability of public and private transfer systems. How the future unfolds will depend on key actors in the generational economy: governments, families, financial institutions, and others. This path-breaking book provides a comprehensive analysis of the macroeconomic effects of changes in population age structure across the globe. The result...

Societal aging and its impact on Singapore

By Cynthia Chen, Julian Lim, Abhijit Visaria & Angelique Chan  Societal aging is arguably one of our most critical demographic challenges (World Bank, 2016). Singapore is aging at a much faster rate compared to other countries. It will take only 27 years to transition from an 'aging society' in 1999 (7% of the population aged 65+) to a 'super-aged society' in 2026 (with 20% of its population aged 65+) (Tan Teck Boon, 2015). Japan, China, Germany, and the United States took, or will take,...

Aging, Healthcare System, and Interest Rates

By Reona Hagiwara Over the past few decades, the Japanese economy has experienced the widening gap between returns on liquid bonds and illiquid capital (i.e., the liquidity premium) due to a secular decline in the real interest rate and a slight increase in the capital return. This paper explores the role of the health or medical expenditure risk in the increase in the premium, using a general equilibrium overlapping generations model with heterogeneous agents that differ in health status and...

The Impact of Population Aging on Financial Services and Economic Development

By Hongyu Fang With the increasing aging population, it has had a profound impact on the financial services industry and economy. This study aims to explore the effect of population aging on the financial service industry and economy and propose corresponding countermeasures and suggestions. The aging population has brought challenges to the financial services industry. The increase in the elderly population has led to a rise in demand for financial products and services. Financial institutions innovate and develop financial products...

October 2023

Preparing for an Aging Africa: Data-Driven Priorities for Economic Research and Policy

By Madeline E. Duhon, Edward Miguel, Amos Njuguna, Daniela Pinto Veizaga & Michael W. Walker The over-60 population in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow rapidly in the coming decades, tripling between 2020 and 2050. Despite this explosive projected growth, few countries in the region have implemented policies designed to support older populations. Further, little research in economics has specifically examined aging in Sub-Saharan Africa, though many opportunities exist for economists to generate research evidence to inform the design of...