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on Economics of Ageing |
| By: | Banks, James (Institute for Fiscal Studies, London); Muriel, Alastair (Institute for Fiscal Studies, London); Smith, James P. (RAND) |
| Abstract: | We find disease incidence and prevalence are both higher among Americans in age groups 55-64 and 70-80 indicating that Americans suffer from higher past cumulative disease risk and experience higher immediate risk of new disease onset compared to the English. In contrast, age specific mortality rates are similar in the two countries with an even higher risk among the English after age 65. Our second aim explains large financial gradients in mortality in the two countries. Among 55-64 year olds, we estimate similar health gradients in income and wealth in both countries, but for 70-80 year old, we find no income gradient in UK. Standard behavioral risk factors (work, marriage, obesity, exercise, and smoking) almost fully explain income gradients among 55-64 years old in both countries and a significant part among Americans 70-80 years old. The most likely explanation of no English income gradient relates to their income benefit system. Below the median, retirement benefits are largely flat and independent of past income and hence past health during the working years. Finally, we report evidence using a long panel of American respondents that their subsequent mortality is not related to large changes in wealth experienced during the prior ten year period. |
| Keywords: | health |
| JEL: | I10 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4992&r=age |
| By: | Jan de Kok; Ingrid Verheul; Abdelfatah Ichou |
| Abstract: | The ageing population increasingly becomes a challenge for policy makers. Given the expected changes in the age decomposition of the workforce, it becomes more pressing to understand the nature of the relationship between age and entrepreneurship. More specifically: what are the consequences of an ageing (entrepreneurial) population on entrepreneurial performance? A recent study by EIM investigates the effect of the age of the entrepreneur at start-up on the size of newly started firms. A distinction is made between the decision of entrepreneurs whether or not to become an employer, and the decision of employers to hire a certain number of employees. To examine to which extent age has a direct and/or indirect effect on these two decision, a sample of 849 new firms has been used that survived the first three years after start-up. A first conclusion of the empirical analysis is that it is important to make the distinction between the two decisions: the decision of entrepreneurs whether or not to become an employer depends on other factors than the decision of employers regarding the number of employees. A second conclusion is that age has a negative relationship with the outcome of both decisions, but that these relationships are completely mediated by the mediating variables included in the study. Entrepreneurs who start at older age are less likely to work fulltime in their new venture, are less willing to take risks and have a lower perception of their entrepreneurial skills. Each of these factors has, in turn, a positive impact on the probability of employing personnel. For the number of employees a negative indirect effect of age exists, through the effect of age on the perception of entrepreneurial skills. |
| Date: | 2010–05–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eim:papers:h201015&r=age |
| By: | Roland Helm (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); S. Landschulze |
| Abstract: | Marketing lacks comprehension on the increasingly important segment of mature consumers in regards of their behaviors and respective reasons for certain behaviors. This study on the desire for alternative products or brands within the domain of fast moving consumer goods was capable to verify significant differences among age-groups. While the keenness for cross-buying increases with age, the desire for switching to other familiar brands than the one usually purchased, and the desire for switching to new brand alternatives is decreasing with age indicating age-patterns in product category-specific innovativeness and variety seeking. The study also considered a wide range of behavioral determinants such as product satisfaction, product involvement, category experience, perceived purchase risk etc. mediating the effect of age on these desires giving a fairly good picture on the causes for the age group differences unveiled. Furthermore, the issue of age potentially operating as a moderating variable on the effects of the behavioral determinants on the desires for product and brand alternatives found consideration in this study but was proven to be of marginal relevance. |
| Keywords: | Optimal stimulation theory, Consumer behaviour, Exploratory behaviour, Adoption, New Products, Older consumers, Age effects |
| Date: | 2010–06–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jen:jenjbe:2010-07&r=age |