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on Economics of Ageing |
| By: | Cynthia Chen; Julian Lim; Abhijit Visaria; Angelique Chan |
| Abstract: | Societal aging is arguably one of our most critical demographic challenges, and Singapore is aging at a much faster rate compared to other countries. Population aging could negatively affect older adults, contribute to an increase in healthcare expenditure and increase caregivers' financial and emotional burden. This chapter provides an overview of the well-being and health and social care needs of older adults in Singapore. Formulating social and public policies that enhance the health span, extend productive life years, support caregivers, and improve community health and social care services are crucial elements to help older adults age successfully. We analyze how aging affects health, financial security, and well-being, exploring correlations between disability levels and these factors. We then discuss policies the Singapore government has implemented or will implement to help older adults age successfully. Lastly, we provide an overview of formal and informal care provided in Singapore, including assessing the overall cost of LTC in Singapore. |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31958&r=age |
| By: | Linden, Mikael; Väänänen, Niko |
| Abstract: | We propose an elementary economic model which assumes that the integral of life survival function can be interpreted as a utility function. The model helps us to understand connections between individual’s survival estimate to some specific age and the timing of retirement. The difference between survival and related longevity costs is maximized with an estimate of survival time. The results are derived with the concept of restricted mean survival times (RMST). This is also applied to the observed retirement and death ages for the Finnish year 1947 birth cohort. We show that actual survival times, i.e., mean lifetimes to the age of 73 years, which is the highest age in our follow-up sample, differ among retired and not yet retired persons between the ages from 60 to 68 years. The main result is that persons who retire in ages from 62 to 66 years have shorter mean lifetimes to the age of 73 years compared to individuals who do not retire in these ages. This is interpreted as evidence of too optimistic survival estimates among the persons retiring at the most popular retirement ages. |
| Keywords: | Retirement ages, subjective survival times, age of death, survival analysis, restricted mean survival times (RMST |
| JEL: | C41 I12 J14 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:119344&r=age |
| By: | Axel H. Börsch-Supan; Courtney Coile |
| Abstract: | The International Social Security (ISS) project compares the experiences of a dozen developed countries to study Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the World. The project was launched in the mid 1990s and was motivated by decades of decline in the labor force participation rate of older men. The first phases of the project documented that social security program provisions can create powerful incentives for retirement that are strongly correlated with the labor force behavior of older workers. Since then, the dramatic decline in men’s labor force participation has been replaced by sharply rising participation rates. Older women’s participation has increased dramatically as well. This tenth phase of the International Social Security (ISS) Project is the third step in explaining rising participation at older ages. The first step investigated changes in health and education as potential causes and showed that they could not account for the extent of changes in labor force participation. As a second step, we documented that countries have undertaken numerous reforms of their social security programs, disability programs, and other public benefit programs available to older workers. We found that these reforms substantially reduced the implicit tax on work at older ages and that stronger financial incentives to work were positively correlated with labor force participation at older ages. In this volume, the third step of our analysis, we exploit the time-series and cross-national variation in the timing and extent of reforms of retirement incentives and employ micro-econometric methods in order to study whether the correlation between financial incentives and work at older ages is causal. |
| JEL: | J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31979&r=age |
| By: | Anqi Chen; Siyan Liu; Alicia H. Munnell |
| Abstract: | The share of older Americans with debt has been on the rise in recent decades, raising concerns about their financial security in retirement. However, having debt does not always signal financial fragility, so understanding the distinctions in household debt is crucial to determining the implications of this trend. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finances and Health and Retirement Study, this study identifies which older borrowers are at high risk and low risk of financial hardship, determines whether the growth in borrowing is driven by high- or low-risk households, and identifies different types of high-risk households. The results suggest that more than half of older borrowers are at high risk, and this group is driving the growth in debt holding. Four subgroups of high-risk borrowers stand out, each with different characteristics. Thus, no one-size-fits-all solution exists, so recognizing the diverse characteristics of high-risk borrowers is essential to developing effective policies to help them. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:crrwps:wp2023-11&r=age |
| By: | Pilar García-Gómez; Silvia Garcia-Mandicó; Sergi Jimenez-Martin; Judit Vall Castelló |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the extent to what financial incentives have influenced individual and couples retirement decisions over the last two decades in Spain. We use administrative data on earnings histories to create synthetic measures of financial incentives that we link to individual survey data from the European Community Household Panel and the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. The ocurrence of several major reforms in the period largely facilitates identification. We find that retirement is highly responsive to incentive variables (both ITAX and SSW). We find that a 10% change in the implicit tax rate on working longer increases the probability of retiring by about 0.70 pp (0.90 pp for men and 0.54 for women). Furthermore, we find that couple incentives matter more in husband's retirement decisions than in wife's retirement decisions. |
| JEL: | H55 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31956&r=age |
| By: | Gijs Dekkers; Raphael Desmet; Karel Van den Bosch |
| Abstract: | For the projection of social sustainability indicators, the Federal Planning Bureau uses the dynamic microsimulation model MIDAS, which has recently undergone a major revision. In this working paper we report a projection up to 2070 of poverty risks and income inequality among the elderly, pensioners and the population under 65 years, in a scenario with current pension policies and projected demographic and socio-economic evolutions. |
| JEL: | C63 D31 I32 I38 H55 |
| Date: | 2023–05–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpb:wpaper:202303&r=age |
| By: | Carmelo Rodríguez-Álvarez (Instituto Complutense de Análisis Económico (ICAE), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain).); Antonio Romero-Medina (Department of Economics. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucm:doicae:2303&r=age |
| By: | Jean-Pierre Aubry |
| Abstract: | Retiring baby boomers are increasing the demand for Social Security Administration (SSA) services at a time when budget constraints and retiring staff are limiting the agency’s capacity to deliver them. Online services offer a way for SSA to meet increased demand with fewer resources. However, even as SSA has shifted more personalized information and services online to its my Social Security platform, research shows that many people still do not use this tool to view their Social Security Statement or apply for benefits. As such, this brief explores recent retirees’ satisfaction with the claiming process amidst the shift to online tools and the continued desire by some for in-person or phone services. The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section describes the CRR’s 2021 survey on individuals’ claiming process, which is the source of data for this analysis. The second section documents survey respondents’ reported claiming satisfaction and finds that it is generally high, with some small differences by race/ethnicity and claiming process (i.e., online vs. offline). The third section explores the extent to which a claimant’s degree of satisfaction with the process is associated with their reasons for contacting SSA. The fourth section describes survey respondents’ open-ended suggestions for improving the claiming process. The final section concludes that, overall, recent retirees report being very satisfied with their experience and that continued improvements in online services could potentially further boost satisfaction for those who prefer to use online tools. |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2023-21&r=age |
| By: | Jean-Pierre Aubry |
| Abstract: | Retiring baby boomers are increasing the demand for services from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) at a time when budget constraints and retiring staff are limiting the agency’s capacity to deliver them. Using online services – rather than contacting a representative – offers a way for SSA to meet increased demand with fewer resources. However, prior CRR survey research suggests that almost two-thirds of retirees contact SSA in person or by phone during their claiming process and non-White individuals are more likely to do so than White individuals. Using these same survey data, this brief explores whether racial differences exist in when and why individuals contact SSA. The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section reviews the CRR’s 2021 survey on individuals’ claiming process. The second section examines whether the survey data show any racial differences in when people reach out to SSA representatives. The third section explores any racial differences in the reasons why people contact the agency. The fourth section looks at the racial impact of policies designed to reduce the need to interact with SSA. The final section concludes that the racial differences in the timing and reasons for reaching out to SSA are small compared to differences in the share that choose to contact SSA at all. That said, policies that reduce the need to contact SSA to obtain basic information or correct data errors could reduce racial differences in contact rates. |
| Date: | 2023–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2023-19&r=age |
| By: | D'elia Vanesa Valeria; Karczmarczyk Matilde |
| Abstract: | This study aims to measure the evolution of the aggregate well-being of elderly people in Argentina during 2003-2023 using the more traditional abbreviated social welfare functions and the more recent hedonometer tool. Results show that both indicators have similar patterns: welfare increases during 2003-2011 and has been falling ever since. However, the reasons of this behavior differs in each presidency term. Moreover, we show that the happiness of pensioners measured from public opinion positively correlates with the well-being measured through income and distribution indexes. This result is relevant for policy makers. |
| JEL: | D3 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aep:anales:4644&r=age |