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on Economics of Ageing |
| By: | Sébastien LaRochelle-Côté; John Myles; Garnett Picot |
| Abstract: | Post-war policies and subsequent debates had two policy targets: reducing old-age poverty and enhancing income security for the “average worker” after retirement. While we know a lot about the first issue, the second has received less attention as a result of data limitations. We take advantage of unique longitudinal data based on Canadian tax files (the LAD) to examine income replacement rates of older Canadians relative to their economic status when they were in their mid-fifties. In 2005, the replacement income of retired individuals in their mid-seventies who were in the middle of the income distribution at age 55 (in the early 1980s) was between 70 and 80 percent of their previous incomes some 20 years earlier This figure is at the high end of the range (65 to 75 percent) that experts generally consider “adequate” for middle-income retirees to maintain their pre-retirement living standards. However, we also show that there is considerable variation in replacement rates. By age 75, about a quarter of middle-income persons had retirement incomes of less than 60 percent of the income they were receiving in their mid-fifties, a result of differential access to private pension income. We also ask whether income replacement rates have been rising or falling among more recent cohorts of retirees but find little change. Finally, we report results about the stability of incomes in the retirement years. We conclude that year to year instability in family income declines for both high and low income earners as they age, largely because of the stabilizing effect of public pension income sources. |
| Keywords: | retirement, income security |
| JEL: | J14 J26 D60 D63 H19 H55 I30 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:sedapp:236&r=age |
| By: | Thierry Lallemand (DULBEA, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels); François Rycx (Centre Emile Bernheim, DULBEA, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels and IZA-Bonn.) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of the workforce age structure on the productivity of large Belgian firms. More precisely, it examines different scenarios of changes in the proportion of young (16-29 years), middle-aged (30-49 years) and old (more than 49 years) workers and their expected effects on firm productivity. Using detailed matched employer-employee data, we find that a higher share of young (old) workers within firms is favourable (harmful) for firm value added per capita. Results also show that age structure effects on productivity are stronger in ICT than in non-ICT firms. |
| Keywords: | Firm performance, Workforce age structure, Demographic changes |
| JEL: | J21 J31 L25 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-002&r=age |
| By: | Codrina Rada |
| Abstract: | Unprecedented demographic changes are set to unfold in most of the industrialized world. They are relevant not only because of the diminishing pool of workers, but also because of the increasing importance of retirees as an economic class. Retirees’ consumption and saving patterns can differ considerably from those of wage earners and capitalists, as retirees tend to consume more services and save less or in fact dissave. From this perspective of changing aggregate consumption and saving patterns I argue that population aging together with existing constraints to growth and the institutional framework in place leads to a reconfiguration of income distribution and therefore to possible changes in the growth rate of the economy. Understanding how future income distribution may look like and the behavior of different economic classes, helps in designing the right policies to accommodate the demographic transition. |
| Keywords: | population aging, income distribution and growth, Keynesian macroeconomics |
| JEL: | E12 E24 E60 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uta:papers:2009_01&r=age |
| By: | Seebens, Holger (University of Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | This paper is concerned with patterns of expenditure and child welfare among female headed (FHH) and male headed households (MHH) in Tanzania as well as with the underlying cause of potentially different patterns. I estimate semiparametric Engel curves to investigate household expenditure patterns while controlling for household characteristics and find that FHH spend significantly more money on the welfare of children and less on consumption of adult goods. In an attempt to explain this observed difference, I further investigate the empirical content of the old-age security hypothesis, which states that persons lacking the financial means to rely on themselves during old-age invest more in children who care for them in later periods. The results lend support to the idea that old-age security might be the driving force behind the observed differences of expenditure allocated towards the welfare of children. FHH having access to alternative means of old-age security, spend significantly less on child welfare. Furthermore, food expenditure levels of FHH and MHH with access to alternative old-age security become the same. |
| Keywords: | demand, female headed households, child welfare, old age security |
| JEL: | D12 J12 J13 J14 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3929&r=age |
| By: | Sergio Cesaratto |
| Abstract: | The controversial saving-investment relationship is central to macroeconomics, but in this capacity – perhaps less evidently – it is also central to the macroeconomics of pension reforms. Bearing this in mind, in this paper we shall review the main issues concerning these reforms and examine the recent attempt to enlarge the fully funded component of the pension system in Italy by employing the resources accumulated by firms on behalf of workers within the ‘Trattamento di Fine Rapporto’ scheme (a sort of severance pay scheme). |
| JEL: | E11 G23 H55 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:549&r=age |