Economics of Ageing http://lists.repec.org/mailman/listinfo/nep-age Economics of Ageing 2026-05-11 Trends in Health Inequalities among Spanish Retirees https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uab:wprdea:wpdea2602&r=&r=age Spain, with one of the highest life expectancies globally and a rapidly ageing population, faces growing challenges in sustaining its pension, healthcare, and long-term care systems. This study examines trends in health inequalities among retired Spaniards from 2004 to 2022, using eight waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We analyse five health outcomes—limitations in daily and instrumental activities, number of chronic conditions, a composite health deficiency index, mental health (EURO-D scale), and cognitive performance—and use linear regression to assess income-related gradients, adjusted for age and sex. We also compute a catch-up time measure—the number of years a poorer individual would need to reach the same level of health as a richer individual—and concentration indices of bad health. We then examine how these inequalities change over time, allowing us to explore the potential influence of pension reforms within the context of Spain’s Beveridge-style healthcare system and tax-funded long-term care provision. Our results show no clear evidence that health inequality has increased from 2004 to 2022. These findings contribute to understanding how income disparities interact with social protection systems in ageing societies and inform the design of equitable health, long-term care, and pension policies. Cristina Bellés-Obrero Manuel Flores Pilar García-Gómez Sergi Jiménez-Martín Judit Vall-Castelló transportation, housing prices, within cities 2026-05 Demographic change in Europe and Central Asia addressing the issue of a shrinking and ageing labour force https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:ilowps:995649976202676&r=&r=age This paper identifies existing labour market challenges associated with ageing in Europe and Central Asia. It presents a general overview and provides ideas to stimulate social dialogue. In 2024, there were 28 persons aged 65 years and above per 100 persons aged 15 to 64 years and this ratio is projected to rise to 43 by 2050. The proportion of older workers (55 years and above) will increase, while the prime-age workforce (25 to 54 years) will decline. This demographic transition is expected to result in a net loss of 10 million workers in the region by 2050. As pension systems increasingly have to rely on a diminishing pool of younger workers, sustaining current living standards will become more challenging. Productivity growth in Europe and Central Asia has been falling since 1991. New sources of productivity have to be unlocked if current standards of living are to be maintained. Increasing the labour force participation of inadequately represented groups, including women, persons with disabilities, the youth, migrants and refugees may only partially improve the situation. However, it would be a step forward in improving the outlook for the challenges that the region is experiencing. De Gobbi, Maria Sabrina, Kühn, Stefan, Heins, Guido, Malikova, Ziyodakhon, labour force, ageing population, older workers, social dialogue 2025 Intersecting inequalities in later life: work-family trajectories and old age poverty among natives and immigrants in Finland https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:rk8n4_v1&r=&r=age Concurrently to population ageing, the number of older people with immigrant background is rising. Immigrant background in conjunction with family and labour market trajectories during working age will increasingly shape inequality in late life. In this study, we ask: 1) What kinds of work-family trajectories can be identified among immigrant and native men and women in the years preceding retirement? 2) How do clusters of these trajectories differ by immigration background and gender? 3) How are these clusters linked to socioeconomic outcomes at age 65 and throughout working age? We use Finnish full-population register data from 1987-2022. Our analysis sample consists of individuals observed in the data for the entire observation period from age 45 to 65. Using multichannel sequence analysis and cluster analysis, we identified seven clusters. High-income earner with family was the most common among natives (21%), while low-income earner with family was the most common among immigrants (26%). The identified clusters correlate with differences in earnings development from age 45 to 65 and poverty status at age 65. Poverty at age 65 is higher among immigrants in all clusters, while being single is an important predictor of poverty regardless of the cluster. Gender appeared to affect poverty and earnings development much less than immigrant background when work-life trajectory was taken into account. Our study provides novel evidence on older immigrants and illustrates great heterogeneity regarding work-family trajectories, highlighting the importance of analysing determinants of poverty and inequality across the life course in a heterogenous population. Vaalavuo, Maria Riekhoff, Aart-Jan Karhula, Aleksi 2026-04-27 Neighborhood Disorder and Dementia Risk in U.S. Older Adults: The Role of Cardiometabolic Risk https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18581&r=&r=age We estimate the effect of neighborhood disorder on dementia risk and identify cardiometabolic dysregulation as a mediating biological pathway. Using Health and Retirement Study (2006–2020), we show that exposure to visible neighborhood disorder is associated with higher risk of dementia (Hazard Ratio: 1.37; 95% CI: 1.08–1.74) and higher risk of cognitive impairment no dementia (CIND; HR: 1.50; 95% CI: 1.22–1.85) over a 14-year follow-up. Mediation analysis reveals that a composite cardiometabolic risk score - aggregating seven biomarkers spanning inflammatory, cardiovascular, and metabolic systems - accounts for approximately 16% of the total neighborhood disorder–dementia association and 19% of the neighborhood disorder–CIND association. These findings are robust to competing-risk regression for mortality, restriction to non-movers, age-at-onset restrictions, and exclusion of pandemic-year data. The findings suggest that community interventions that simultaneously reduce visible signs of neighborhood decay and address cardiometabolic risk may yield dementia-prevention dividends beyond what individual-level clinical strategies alone can achieve. Yu, Jiao Wang, Yi Gill, Thomas Chen, Xi dementia, cognitive impairment, neighborhood disorder, cardiometabolic risk, social determinants of health, mediation analysis 2026-04 Use of Shared and Private Information in Long-Term Care Risk Perceptions https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20260013&r=&r=age Misperception of long-term care (LTC) risk may distort insurance and saving decisions. Comparing older Americans’ subjective probabilities of nursing home entry with realized outcomes, we find LTC risk perceptions are inaccurate, partly due to inappropriate weighting of risk factors insurers can observe. Risk perceptions capture only 37% of the potential discriminatory power of this shared information. Private information offsets only one third of the resulting inaccuracy. LTC insurance take-up is positively associated with perceived risk even after adjusting for confounders and reverse causality. These findings are consistent with selection out of insurance partly due to underutilization of shared information. Lisa Voois Teresa Bago d-Uva Owen O'Donnell subjective probability, information friction, mental gap, cognitive bias, behavioral insurance, long-term care insurance 2026-03-20 Why Is Dementia Diagnosed Later for Racial and Ethnic Minorities? The Role of Individual and Neighborhood Factors https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1749&r=&r=age Racial and ethnic minorities with dementia are substantially less likely to receive timely diagnoses, yet the factors underlying these gaps remain poorly quantified. Using nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data linked to Medicare claims (1998-2021) and National Neighborhood Data Archive, we examine racial and ethnic disparities in timely dementia diagnosis among U.S. older adults and decompose these gaps using causal mediation analysis. Timely diagnosis is defined as a clinical dementia diagnosis recorded in Medicare claims within three years before or one year after the HRS survey wave at which dementia was first identified. After controlling for demographics and health conditions, non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic individuals are significantly less likely than non-Hispanic White individuals to receive a timely diagnosis. Educational attainment is the dominant mediator, explaining 48% of the Black-White disparity and 62% of the Hispanic-White disparity, followed by neighborhood affluence (27% and 18%, respectively) and the density of non-physician health practitioner offices (16% and 15%) and physician offices (10% and 12%). Dementia specialist evaluation accounts for a further 7% and 6%, respectively. These findings identify educational attainment and neighborhood-level healthcare infrastructure as the primary structural determinants of racial and ethnic gaps in dementia detection, pointing to targeted policy interventions to advance diagnostic equity. Qian, Yuting Li, Fan Chen, Xi timely dementia diagnosis, disparities, education, neighborhood socioeconomic factors, health care access 2026 Delayed Retirement: Effects on Health and Healthcare Utilization https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12628&r=&r=age We estimate the impact of an increase in the early retirement age (ERA) on labor supply, health, and healthcare use using a regression discontinuity design. Raising the ERA increased employment and use of public transfers. Effects on GP visits and painkiller use are precisely estimated, small, and insignificant, while antidepressant and cardiovascular drug use increased slightly, but only borderline significantly. Those induced to work had lower pre-reform income and wealth, whereas those not working despite exposure had poorer pre-reform health. We argue that possibilities for exiting employment serve as a mitigating mechanism by sorting vulnerable individuals out of employment. Anne Katrine Borgbjerg Hans Sigaard Michael Svarer Rune Vejlin retirement reforms, health, healthcare utilization 2026 Nearby children, longer lives? Evidence from the Finnish population register https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2026-013&r=&r=age Geographic proximity facilitates contact and support between ageing parents and their adult children. While previous research has examined changes in living arrangements when parents age and become ill, little is known about how proximity to children itself is associated with their health and survival. This study examines how the distance between parents aged 60-85 and their adult children influences parents’ mortality in Finland. Using novel multigenerational data from the Finnish population register, we estimate discrete-time survival models for the associations of co-residence and proximity to children with parental mortality. Co-residence with children is associated with substantially lower mortality risks only among spouseless fathers, while living close to non-coresident children is linked to lower mortality among spouseless mothers and fathers. Children’s gender plays a limited role., However, close proximity to daughters is associated with lower mortality among spouseless mothers. Our findings suggest that living close to children matters for parents’ longevity when there is no spouse to provide support. Sanny B. D. Afable Júlia Mikolai Megan Evans Kaarina Korhonen Yana C. Vierboom Pekka Martikainen Hill Kulu Mikko Myrskylä Finland, ageing, family, gerontology, health, spatial distance, survival, value of children 2026 Aging and the Timing of Intergenerational Transfers https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaeee:eee2026-16&r=&r=age This paper shows that demographic aging reshapes intergenerational wealth transmission not only by a!ecting the size of transfers, but—crucially—by delaying the timing at which they are received, with important implications for wealth inequality and intergenerational mobility. While existing research has emphasized the role of inheritances in wealth accumulation, we argue that delayed inheritance receipt has become a central and unequal channel through which economic advantage and disadvantage persist across generations. Using microdata from the Spanish Survey of Household Finances (2002–2022), we show that the average age at first inheritance has increased by almost twenty years over recent decades. We quantify the economic cost of delayed inheritances, finding that each additional year of delay is associated with approximately over a 2% reduction in long-run net wealth. A simple model and stratified estimates by education reveal that this timing penalty is concentrated among households with low and medium education, consistent with the presence of binding credit constraints. We further show that earlier inheritances shape key life-cycle decisions, increasing the likelihood of homeownership, entrepreneurship, and investment in other real estate. Finally, we examine early inter vivos transfers, which could in principle provide early access to inherited resources but are disproportionately received by wealthier households and generate economically meaningful benefits primarily for the highly educated. Overall, our findings indicate that demographic aging amplifies wealth inequality by weakening the equalizing role of intergenerational transfers and concentrating their economic benefits among already advantaged groups. J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz Francisco García-Rodríguez 2026-04 The Annuity Puzzle Revisited: Barriers, Behavior, and Policy Paths to Lifetime Income https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35145&r=&r=age Wealth decumulation decisions, or how to optimize consumption over an uncertain remaining lifespan, are among the most difficult people face. They involve intertemporal tradeoffs, uncertainty, complexity, and emotion, yet many consumers receive little formal guidance. A central challenge is securing lifetime income and avoiding outliving resources, particularly through life annuities that guarantee income for life. Standard economic models predict high demand for annuities, but in practice few individuals purchase them, a gap known as the annuity puzzle. This paper introduces annuities, examines limited adoption among consumers and plan sponsors, reviews leading explanations, and outlines approaches to increase uptake and improve decision quality. Hal E. Hershfield Suzanne Shu Jeffrey R. Brown Abigail Hurwitz Moshe Arye. Milevsky Olivia S. Mitchell Tamiko Toland 2026-04