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on Economics of Ageing |
| By: | Kakoulidou, Theano; Keane, Claire; Sándorová, Simona |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:bp2025/2 |
| By: | Carla Rowold (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | While research emphasized the risk of gendered sample selection bias among the elderly decades ago, the empirical literature on old-age inequalities remains largely unaware of it. This research note addresses this issue by investigating gendered sample selectivity for individuals aged 65 or older employing two common sample criteria: self-reported retirement status and pension receipt in countries covered by the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Findings show that more than half of older women are excluded when these criteria are applied. Gender selection bias varies widely across countries and is less pronounced in post-socialist or social-democratic welfare states. Visualizing work trajectories by sample status reveals that women with long unpaid care work periods and men with high self-employment, unemployment, and extended education levels are particularly likely to be excluded. Studies employing such sample criteria risk underestimating gender inequalities in pensions, health, and life satisfaction. The implications are severe for Southern, conservative, and liberal welfare states, and for cross-country comparisons, where sample bias often goes undetected due to its variability across contexts. While this article cannot offer a universal recommendation for sample definitions, it aims to promote less biased sample conceptualizations in studies of the elderly population. |
| Keywords: | bias, gender, life cycle, old age, pension schemes, retirement, retirement pensions, samples |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2024-025 |
| By: | Dylla, Carolin; Ries, Dorothea; Schütt, Karolina |
| Abstract: | As European pension systems are struggling to provide financial security in retirement under the pressure of demographic change, poverty in old age disproportionally affects women. Given these developments, private investment is becoming ever more important to securing financial means after retirement. Therefore, this paper investigates which factors determine female and male investment behaviour in Germany regarding different asset classes? It is hypothesised that (i) differences in investment behaviour are mainly driven by wealth and income. (ii) However, even after controlling for income, there are still gender differences in investment behaviour. We conduct a thorough literature review and empirical analysis based thereon, using the 2017 data wave of the ECB's Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) for German single households. Controlling for selected socio-economic variables, we find that women have significantly less holdings in risky assets. This observation holds even when adding gross household income as further control variable. However, no difference between male and female investment behaviour can be detected in relatively risk-free asset classes. The findings in this paper contribute to existing and future research - its literature points out the ambiguity and lack of coherence in existing research in the topic of gendered investment behaviour. Further, its empirical analysis provides new insights using the updated 2017 HFCS dataset, with most previous research based on 2010/14 HFCS data. Lastly, we are drawing attention to the unequal strategies of wealth accumulation between men and women and their ramifications for wealth distribution providing important contextualisation for future policy-making. |
| Keywords: | Gender, Inequalities, Finance, Portfolio Choices, Assets, HFCS |
| JEL: | D31 G11 J16 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ipewps:300843 |
| By: | Hirandas, Lekshmy |
| Abstract: | With an aging state population, it is crucial to understand the factors that contribute to road safety among adults aged 65 and older and identify at-risk neighborhoods for targeted interventions. In this context, this report analyzes fatal and serious injury (FSI) trends and patterns among aging road users, including older pedestrians and bicyclists, with a focus on identifying neighborhoods at risk for crashes based on senior FSI rates. 2178 census tracts (32.7%) were deemed as being potential at-risk neighborhoods, as they all exceeded the state average senior FSI rate of 120 per 100, 000 individuals (0.12%). The report also discusses factors that contribute to road safety among older adults, including physical changes associated with aging and the impact of new mobility technologies. By identifying at-risk neighborhoods and exploring factors that contribute to senior road safety, this report aims to inform targeted interventions to improve road safety for older adults. |
| Keywords: | Social and Behavioral Sciences |
| Date: | 2023–07–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsrrp:qt022007tv |
| By: | Charles Yuji Horioka; Luigi Ventura |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the saving motives of European households using micro-data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), which is conducted by the European Central Bank. We find that the rank ordering of saving motives differs greatly depending on what criterion is used to rank them. For example, we find that the precautionary motive is the most important saving motive of European households when the proportion of households saving for each motive is used as the criterion to rank them but that the retirement motive is the most important saving motive of European households if the quantitative importance of each motive is taken into account. Moreover, the generosity of social safety nets seems to affect the importance of each saving motive, with saving for the retirement motive being less important in countries with generous public pension benefits and saving for the precautionary motive being less important in countries with generous health systems. These findings suggest that the retirement motive and the precautionary motive are the dominant motives for saving in Europe partly because social safety nets are not fully adequate. Our finding that saving motives that are consistent with the selfish life-cycle model as well as saving motives that are consistent with the altruism model are important in Europe implies that the two models coexist in Europe, as is the case in other parts of the world. However, our finding that the retirement motive, which is the saving motive that most exemplifies the selfish life-cycle model, is of dominant importance in Europe strongly suggests that this model is far more applicable in Europe than is the altruism model. Moreover, our finding that the intergenerational transfers motive, which is the saving motive that most exemplifies the altruism model, accounts for only about one-quarter of total household wealth in Europe provides further corroboration for this finding. |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1251 |
| By: | Matthew J. Baker; Joyce P. Jacobsen |
| Abstract: | We discuss the interrelationship between the treatment of the elderly, the nature of production, and the transmission of culture. Respect for the elderly is endogenous. Parents cultivate an interest in consuming culture in their children; when they are older, children compensate their elders proportional to the degree to which their interests were previously cultivated. We show that this model is functionally equivalent to one in which cultural goods are transferred across generations. We focus on the relative well-being of the elderly and use the model to explain patterns in their relative well-being across societies. An important theme is that the cultivation of culture and norms for the respect and support of the elderly bear a nonlinear relationship with many economic variables, such as capital and or land intensity in production. We also discuss the interaction of property rights with production, assets such as productive resources, and relative treatment of the elderly. Insecurity of some types of property rights, such as rights over output, may benefit the elderly, while secure rights over productive resources may also benefit the elderly. We discuss how the elderly could be affected by demographic, technological and policy changes in both developing and developed economies. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.09638 |
| By: | Doorley, Karina; Tuda, Dora |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:bp2025/1 |
| By: | Carmen Sainz Villalba; Kai A. Konrad |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the relationship between financial literacy, perception of own preference or eccentricity, and the willingness or desire to delegate the planning for pensions to government regulation and the willingness or desire to have government regulation on savings plans for the population as a whole. By using an online survey conducted with Bilendi&Respondi, we correlate the variables of people’s perception of how different they are from others with respect to their pension plan preferences, how informed they are about financial matters in general, and what are their preferences toward the government intervention of savings plans. The empirical approach is inspired by theory results of Konrad (2023). His game-theory analysis suggest that two factors increase the citizen’s desire for autonomous economic decision-making: eccentricity of own preferences, and own expertise/knowledge and decisions skills. Our work corroborates these two hypotheses in the specific context of pension savings decisions. Furthermore, we also analyze what are the factors that determine the difference between wanting to be regulated themselves and wanting others to be regulated. We find that people that want less intervention for themselves and are more informed want, on average, more government intervention for others. |
| Keywords: | Paternalism, Autonomy, Delegation, Knowledge, Eccentricity, Other-regarding preferences |
| JEL: | D78 D03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpi:wpaper:tax-mpg-rps-2023-10 |
| By: | Anantharaman, Divya; Chuk, Elizabeth; Kamath, Saipriya |
| Abstract: | Although operating income is a pervasively used performance metric, the FASB has never defined operating income. ASU 2017-07 moves toward defining operating income for the first time in the FASB’s history by specifying the inclusion and exclusion of certain income components in operating income. We examine the real effects of a mandated relocation of the income-smoothing mechanisms for defined benefit pensions from “above the line” to “below the line” of operating income. For over 30 years, the income-smoothing mechanisms from SFAS 87 (1985) have created financial reporting incentives for employers to invest in higher-risk pension assets. Consistent with ASU 2017-07 reducing the financial reporting incentives for risk-taking, we predict and find that a sample of US firms subject to this mandate reduces investment in riskier pension assets following the change, relative to a control sample of Canadian firms not subject to the change. In cross-sectional tests, we find that the reduction in risk-taking is more pronounced in (1) firms where the financial reporting benefits to risk-taking were stronger in the pre-period, and (2) firms where the regulatory change particularly reduced those financial reporting benefits. Our findings provide the first direct evidence that smoothing induces US pension sponsors to tilt toward riskier pension investments; they also indicate that financial statement presentation has real economic consequences. |
| Keywords: | accounting regulation; standard-setting; defined benefit pension; operating income; Accounting Standards Update No. 2017-07 |
| JEL: | M40 M41 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:124405 |
| By: | Xiaobai Zhu; Kenneth Q. Zhou; Zijia Wang |
| Abstract: | The significance of mortality modeling extends across multiple research areas, including life insurance valuation, longevity risk management, life-cycle hypothesis, and retirement income planning. Despite the variety of existing approaches, such as mortality laws and factor-based models, they often lack compatibility or fail to meet specific research needs. To address these shortcomings, this study introduces a novel approach centered on modeling the dynamics of individual vitality and defining mortality as the depletion of vitality level to zero. More specifically, we develop a four-component framework to analyze the initial value, trend, diffusion, and sudden changes in vitality level over an individual's lifetime. We demonstrate the framework's estimation and analytical capabilities in various settings and discuss its practical implications in actuarial problems and other research areas. The broad applicability and interpretability of our vitality-based modeling approach offer an enhanced paradigm for mortality modeling. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.15388 |
| By: | Michael A. Clemens (Peterson Institute for International Economics) |
| Abstract: | South Korea faces an unprecedented economic crisis driven by rapid population aging, as it approaches a future of negative economic growth. This paper examines the full range of possible policy responses with the potential to restore dynamism to the Korean economy. Contrary to many prior analyses, the author finds that enhanced labor migration to Korea is necessary, sufficient, and feasible. Migration is necessary because in the best forecasts we have, no other class of policy has the quantitative potential to meaningfully offset aging. Migration is sufficient because enhanced temporary labor migration by itself would offset most of Korea's demographic drag on growth over the next 50 years. And migration is feasible because the levels of migration and timescale of the transition would resemble that already carried out by Malaysia and Australia. Many advanced economies will follow in Korea's demographic footsteps in decades to come, and have much to learn from the decisions that the Korean government makes now. |
| Keywords: | Migration, South Korea, Labor, Demography, Economic Growth, Population Aging |
| JEL: | F22 J15 K37 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp24-18 |