June 2019

Evolving Eldercare in Contemporary China: Two Generations, One Decision (Series in Asian Labor and Welfare Policies) (English Edition)

By Lin Chen With an increasing number of elders moving into nursing homes, the shift from family to nursing home care calls for an exploration of caregiving decision-making in urban China. This study examines how a rapidly growing aging population, the one-child policy, and economic reform in urban China pose unprecedented challenges to the country’s ingrained tradition of family caregiving. It presents interviews of matched elders and their children from a government-sponsored nursing home in Shanghai and analyzes...

Social Security Coverage for State and Local Government Workers: A Reconsideration

By William G. Gale, David John, Sarah E. Holmes Since it was created in 1935, Social Security has grown from covering about half of the work force to covering nearly all workers. The largest remaining exempted group is a subset of state and local government workers (SLGWs). As of 2008, Social Security did not cover about 27 percent of the 23.8 million SLGWs (Congressional Research Service 2011). Non-coverage of SLGWs is concentrated in certain states scattered around the country...

Financial Literacy and Financial Education: Theory and Survey

By Beata Swiecka, Aleksandra Grzesiuk, Dieter Korczak It is a well-known saying that money does not buy happiness. But it certainly helps in life. It is important to have enough of it to satisfy our needs and to secure ourselves from emergency situations. That's what adults think. And what about the youth? What is their approach to money, what do they know about finances and how are their skills in everyday financial management coming along? What kind of...

How Will Retirement Saving Change By 2050? Prospects for the Millennial Generation

By William G. Gale, Hilary Gelfond, Jason J. Fichtner We consider prospects for retirement saving for members of the millennial generation, who will be between ages 54 and 69 in 2050. Adequacy of retirement saving preparation among current and near-retirees is marked by significant heterogeneity, a characteristic that will likely hold for Millennials as well. In preparing for retirement, Millennials will have several advantages relative to previous generations, such as more education, longer working lives, and more flexible work arrangements,...

May 2019

Financial Inclusion

By World Bank Group Financial inclusion has become a major subject of interest among policymakers, researchers, and other financial sector stakeholders. Many countries, for example, have recently adopted explicit financial inclusion strategies with targets for financial inclusion. The interest reflects an increased recognition that financial inclusion can be a driver of economic growth and poverty alleviation, and that many individuals and firms are excluded unnecessarily from even basic financial services. About half of the world's adult population-- more than...

Three Economic Myths about Ageing: Participation, Immigration and Infrastructure

By Dr Cameron K. Murray, Leith van Onselen Population ageing due to longevity is one of the greatest successes of the modern era. However, it is widely thought to dramatically reduce workforce participation and overall output resulting in significant economic costs. This widely held view is wrong. Ageing countries have higher economic growth and the improved health and longevity of older people increases their economic contributions. High immigration is also thought to combat population ageing and be a remedy...

Informality, Labor Regulation, and the Business Cycle

By Gustavo Leyva, Carlos Urrutia We analyze the joint impact of employment protection and informality on macroeconomic volatility and the propagation of shocks in emerging economies. For this, we propose a small open economy business cycle model with frictional labor markets, labor regulation, and an informal sector, modeled as self-employment. The model is calibrated to the Mexican economy, in particular to business cycle moments for employment and informality obtained from our own calculations with the ENOE survey for the...

Aging Well: Solutions to the Most Pressing Global Challenges of Aging (English Edition)

By Jean Galiana, William A. Haseltine This open access book outlines the challenges of supporting the health and wellbeing of older adults around the world and offers examples of solutions designed by stakeholders, healthcare providers, and public, private and nonprofit organizations in the United States. The solutions presented address challenges including: providing person-centered long-term care, making palliative care accessible in all healthcare settings and the home, enabling aging-in-place, financing long-term care, improving care coordination and access to care,...

Aging in Sub-Saharan Africa: Recommendations for Furthering Research (English Edition)

By por National Research Council, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Committee on Population, Panel on Policy Research and Data Needs to Meet the Challenge of Aging in Africa In sub-Saharan Africa, older people make up a relatively small fraction of the total population and are supported primarily by family and other kinship networks. They have traditionally been viewed as repositories of information and wisdom, and are critical pillars of the community but as the HIV/AIDS pandemic...

April 2019

Understanding Job Transitions and Retirement Expectations Using Stated Preferences for Job Characteristics

By Nicole Maestas (Harvard Medical School - Department of Health Care Policy), Kathleen J. Mullen (RAND Corporation), David Powell (RAND Corporation), Till Von Wachter (University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) - Department of Economics), Jeffrey B. Wenger (RAND Corporation; American University - School of Public Affairs) As the population ages in the United States and other countries, encouraging older individuals to work would help counter increasing dependency ratios and improve national economic outcomes. Extending working lives is likely not simply...