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on Economics of Ageing |
| By: | prasad, syam |
| Abstract: | Abstract of the paper Aging of population is a major aspect of the process of demographic transition. It is generally expressed as older individuals forming large share of the total population. Such an increase is considered to be an end product of demographic transition or demographic achievements with a decline in both fertility and mortality rates and consequent increase in the life expectancy at birth and older ages. The recent emphasis on studies pertaining to the elderly in the developing world is attributed to their increasing numbers and deteriorating conditions. The lives of many older people are affected more frequently by the social and economic insecurity that accompany demographic and development process (World Bank 1994). The growth of individualism and desire of the independence and autonomy of the young generation (serow 2001) affect the status of the elderly. The studies show that the socio economic condition of older women is more vulnerable in the context of the demographic and the socio cultural change (Tout 1993). The situation of the elderly poverty has been a consistent phenomenon in the third world as the older population is deprived of the basic needs (Keyfitz and Flieger 1990). In this paper we make an attempt to profile life of elderly that reflects on deprivation among the elderly. Here most important question is whether age acts a determining factor in the life of a person. Or does age mediates living condition along with other factors that coexistence in life. Is there any change in the living condition over chronological ladders of human life? How does differ life varies across chronological ladder across space in India over time through a narration of what is happening in the Indian states in the past decade. Here we look into four parameters that create risk and to which chronologically disadvantaged population has to respond. They are marital status, work status, living arrangements of the elderly and dependency. Then look into how close interactions between these factors affect the overall living of the elderly by using an index of life for the Indian states. Here we mainly focuses on how there is an over all decline in the life of elderly by looking into four dimensions of life in terms of marital status, economic status( work participation) dependency and living arrangements. Here we profile these aspects to understand pattern of living among elderly in Indian states. The paper highlights that the living condition of the elderly varies differently across Indian states. The various dimensions are vertically integrated to get a weighted index called in this paper as quality of life among the elderly that take value zero to one with higher value provides worse living condition. It is clear that position of the elderly in terms of material and social well being is betterly positioned in the states of north India rather than south India. |
| Keywords: | ageing; life of elderly; quality of life; demographic transition |
| JEL: | J14 I31 I3 |
| Date: | 2007–11–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5935&r=age |
| By: | Arie Kapteyn; James P. Smith; Arthur Van Soest; James Banks |
| Abstract: | Many western industrialized countries face strong budgetary pressures due to the aging of the baby boom generations and the general trends toward earlier ages of retirement. The authors use the American PSID and the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) to explain differences in prevalence and dynamics of self-reported work disability and labor force status. To that end they specify a two-equation dynamic panel data model describing the dynamics of labor force status and self-reported work disability. When they apply the U.S. parameters to the equations for the thirteen European countries we consider, the result is generally that work disability is lower and employment is higher. Furthermore, measures of employment protection across the different countries suggest that increased employment protection reduces reentry into the labor force and hence is a major factor explaining employment differences in the pre-retirement years. |
| Keywords: | disability, employment policies, cross-national comparisons, labor force dynamics |
| JEL: | H3 J6 J2 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:536&r=age |
| By: | David E. Bloom; David Canning; Michael Moore |
| Abstract: | We construct a life-cycle model in which retirement occurs at the end of life as a result of declining health. We show that improvements in life expectancy, coupled with a delay in the onset of disability, increases both the optimal consumption level and the proportion of life spent in leisure. The retirement age increases proportionally less than the increase in life expectancy. |
| JEL: | D91 J26 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13630&r=age |
| By: | Golo Henseke (University of Rostock and Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change, Germany); Pascal Hetze (Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change, Germany); Thusnelda Tivig (University of Rostock and Rostock Centre for the Study of Demographic Change, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Population aging translates into aging of the labor force. However, the impact of the former on the latter is neither straightforward nor uniform over specific groups. The reason is that economic decisions concerning, for example, duration of schooling or labor-market participation of women and those aged 60+ as well as industry-specific requirements on the demand side affect age-specific employment rates and thus the age structure of labor. In this paper we describe and use different measures of aging to obtain a picture of the aging process in selected German industries and professions between 1980 and 2000. Our results reveal pronounced differences in the age structure, timing and dynamics of aging. However, we find that aging is, in general, subject to convergence towards a homogenous age composition: Subgroups that were relatively young in 1980 aged faster, and vice versa. |
| JEL: | J21 J11 J01 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ros:wpaper:73&r=age |
| By: | Martín Gonzales-Eiras (Universidad de San Andrés); Dirk Niepelt |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effect of changes in fertility and longevity on taxes, the composition of government spending, and productivity. To that purpose, we introduce politics in an OLG economy with endogenous growth due to human and physical capital accumulation. Population ageing shifts political power from students and workers to retirees, leading to a reallocation of resources from education spending to retirement benefits and a slowdown of productivity growth. Calibrated to U.S. data, the closed-form solutions of the model predict retirement benefits as a share of GDP to strongly increase over the next decades and the education share to fall. This effect depresses the annual productivity growth rate by 10 basis points. In spite of higher labor-income taxes, per-capita labor supply is predicted to rise, as a consequence of increased life expectancy. The equilibrium allocation is consumption and production efficient, but the political process allocates a much smaller share of resources to eduction than a Ramsey planner with balanced welfare weights. |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:szg:worpap:0705&r=age |
| By: | Patricia Apps (University of Sydney); Ray Rees; Margi Wood |
| Abstract: | This paper argues against the policy position that begins with a doomsday scenario of publicly provided health insurance and pension systems threatened with collapse under the stresses imposed by population ageing, and instead contends that the threat of crisis in these systems is policy driven. The central thesis of the paper is that a range of policies lead to the creation of an ageing crisis by inhibiting the efficient reallocation of female labour from the home to the market in response to the decline in fertility. The analysis focuses on family support policies that create large effective tax burdens on female labour supply, by means testing the support on family income, or selectively on the second income. Examples include Family Tax Benefit Part A and Part B, the Medicare Levy and the Medicare Safety Net. The analysis draws on household survey data to show that female labour supply is strongly positively associated with household saving, the purchase of private health insurance and spending on family health generally. Policies that inhibit female labour supply therefore have the effect of reducing the tax base for funding public pensions and health care, while simultaneously reducing the capacity of families to fund them privately. |
| Keywords: | life cycle, health costs, pensions, household taxation |
| JEL: | D19 I18 J26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:her:chewps:2007/10&r=age |