|
on Economics of Ageing |
| By: | Robin L. Lumsdaine; Stephanie J.C. Vermeer |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the potential relationship between providing care for grandchildren and retirement, among women nearing retirement age. Using 47,400 person-wave observations from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we find the arrival of a new grandchild is associated with a more than eight percent increase in the retirement hazard despite little overall evidence of a care/retirement interaction. We document that while family characteristics seem to be the most important factors driving the care decision, they are also important determinants of retirement. In contrast, while financial incentives such as pensions and retiree health insurance have the largest influence on retirement, the opportunity cost associated with outside income seems to have little effect on whether or not a grandmother provides care. There is little evidence of substitution between caring for grandchildren versus providing care for elderly parents or engaging in volunteer activities; grandchild care is instead taken on as an additional responsibility. Our findings suggest that policies aimed at prolonging worklife may need to consider grandchild care responsibilities as a countervailing factor while those policies focused on grandchild care may also affect elderly labor force composition. |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J14 J22 J26 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20756&r=age |
| By: | Marina G. Kolosnitsyna (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Natalia A. Khorkina (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Khongor N. Dorzhiev (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The world population is ageing and this demographic trend has become the subject of numerous research projects and discussions. In Russia, this process has also become a topic for many studies examining socio-economic characteristics and health status of elderly, their retirement behaviours. That said, research on the life satisfaction of Russian seniors and its determinants is still rather scarce. At the same time, revealing the factors of life satisfaction in old age could help develop a sound state policy towards the elderly thus enhancing the well-being of society as a whole. This paper explores the determinants of elderly life satisfaction using micro-data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. Our research show that for all Russian seniors aged 55+ the strongest and most common predictors of life satisfaction are: health status, personal income, type of settlement, and social status. We found significant gender differences in factors of life satisfaction: an inverse U-relation of age and happiness is characteristic for the oldest old females only; holding a job enhances life satisfaction for women but not for men; and the education level of seniors has almost no correlation with life satisfaction, while having children decreases an individual’s happiness. |
| Keywords: | happiness, life satisfaction, subjective well-being, ageing, elderly, Russia |
| JEL: | I31 J14 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:68/ec/2014&r=age |
| By: | Alicia H. Munnell; Wenliang Hou; Anthony Webb |
| Abstract: | The release of the Federal Reserve’s 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is a great opportunity to reassess Americans’ retirement preparedness as measured by the National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI). The NRRI shows the share of working-age households who are “at risk” of being unable to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living in retirement. The Index is constructed using the SCF, a triennial survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. households that collects detailed information on their assets, liabilities, and demographic characteristics. For SCF households, the NRRI compares projected replacement rates – retirement income as a percentage of pre-retirement income – with target rates that would allow them to maintain their living standard and calculates the percentage at risk of falling short. The NRRI was originally created using the 2004 SCF and has been updated with the release of each subsequent survey. The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section describes the nuts and bolts of constructing the NRRI. The second section presents the NRRI in 2013, showing that 52 percent of households were at risk. The third section highlights the key levers, and presents the results by age, income, and the nature of pension coverage. The fourth section discusses the stability of the NRRI despite numerous revisions and then identifies why it provides a more dire outlook than that of the optimal savings literature. The final section concludes that the NRRI confirms what we already know – today’s workers face a major retirement income challenge. Even if households work to age 65 and annuitize all their financial assets, including the receipts from reverse mortgages on their homes, more than half are at risk in retirement. |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crr:issbrf:ib2014-20&r=age |
| By: | Zaiceva, Anzelika (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (IZA and University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | This chapter connects population aging with international migration. After documenting the trends for both, we review the supply-push and demand-pull determinants of migration, focusing particularly on the role of age and aging. We subsequently discuss the literature concerning the implications of migration in the context of aging for labor markets, health and public budgets including the political economy context. Although immigration is sometimes suggested as a solution for the aging problem, the existing academic literature from different fields is more cautious about its role and potential. While large-scale selective immigration might contribute to alleviating demographic pressures, it is unlikely that immigration will increase to the unrealistically large numbers needed. |
| Keywords: | aging, migration, demographic pressures, elderly migration, attitudes towards migration, political economy of immigration |
| JEL: | F22 J11 J14 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8743&r=age |
| By: | Elke Loichinger; Bernhard Hammer; Alexia Prskawetz; Michael Freiberger; Jose Sambt |
| Abstract: | In this paper we compare several types of economic dependency ratios for a selection of European countries. These dependency ratios take not only into account the demographic structure of the population, but also the differences in age-specific economic behaviour such as labour market activity, income and consumption. In simulations where we combine patterns of age-specific economic behaviour with population projections, we show that in all countries population ageing would lead to a pronounced increase in dependency ratios if present age-specific patterns were not to change. Our analysis of cross-country differences in economic dependency demonstrates that these differences are driven by both differences in age-specific economic behaviour and in the age composition of the populations. In addition, the specific deffinitions of the ratios will result in different interpretations of dependency. The choice which dependency ratio to use in a specific policy context is determined by the nature of the question to be answered. The comparison of our various dependency ratios across countries gives insights into which strategies might be effective in mitigating the expected increase in economic dependency due to demographic change. |
| Keywords: | National Transfer Accounts, Economic Dependency Ratio |
| JEL: | J11 J16 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feu:wfewop:y:2014:m:12:d:0:i:74&r=age |
| By: | Adam Pilny; Magdalena A. Stroka |
| Abstract: | Existing literature analyzing the choice of received long-term care by frail elderly (65+ years) predominantly focuses on physical and psychological conditions of elderly people as factors that influence the decision for a particular type of care. Until now, however, the regional in-patient long-term care supply has been neglected as influential factor in the individual’s decision-making process. In this study, we analyze the choice of received long-term care by explicitly taking the regional supply of nursing homes into account. When estimating a discrete choice model, we distinguish between four different types of formal and informal care provision. We find that the decision for long-term in-patient care is significantly correlated with the regional supply of nursing home places, while controlling for physical and psychological conditions of the individual. |
| Keywords: | Informal care; formal care; choice of care; administrative data; nursing home supply |
| JEL: | C35 D12 I11 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0525&r=age |
| By: | Agnieszka Ch³oñ-Domiñczak; Agnieszka Kamiñska (Instytut Badañ Strukturalnych); Iga Magda |
| Abstract: | We investigate the problems and the potential solutions to the challenge of increasing women's participation on the European labour market. We focus on three major issues, linked to different moments in women' s life course. Firstly, we look at the youngest women's difficulties related to school-to-work transitions and the beginning of the working careers as well as the challenges related to childbearing. In the next step we analyze the patterns of lifelong learning among women and its potential to improve their human capital, skills and thus productivity, labour incomes and employment potential. We emphasize the necessity to adapt a gender perspective of lifelong learning, as different forces are affecting the career and educational choices and mobility of women and men, and these also vary over time. Finally, we investigate the labour market attachment of older cohorts and discuss the most prospective options of extending females working lives. |
| Keywords: | gender, labour market, lifelong learning, retirement, work-life balance, school to work transition |
| JEL: | J0 J1 I2 |
| Date: | 2013–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:ppaper:pp012013&r=age |
| By: | Joshua Leftin Karen Cunnyngham |
| Abstract: | The Health Impact Project, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts, is conducting a health impact assessment (HIA) intended to inform congressional consideration of changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) included in the 2013 Farm Bill reauthorization. This issue brief updates and summarizes some of the estimates that Mathematica provided in support of the HIA in the original analysis. It finds that the majority of individuals who would be affected under proposed legislative changes live in poverty, and a substantial percentage are children under age 18, elderly people age 60 or older, or nonelderly disabled individuals. |
| Keywords: | SNAP Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Eligibilty Participation, Benefits |
| JEL: | I0 I1 |
| Date: | 2013–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:88ed55d972f54bbe8b8b493285047634&r=age |
| By: | Jacqueline Kauff; Lisa Dragoset; Elizabeth Clary; Elizabeth Laird; Libby Makowsky; Emily Samaa-Miller |
| Keywords: | SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Underserved Elderly, Working Poor, Fiscal Year 2009, Nutrition |
| JEL: | I0 I1 |
| Date: | 2014–04–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:e528a10111fd4ace9b8cc57e4d02d95c&r=age |
| By: | Jacqueline Kauff; Lisa Dragoset; Elizabeth Clary; Elizabeth Laird; Libby Makowsky; Emily Samaa-Miller |
| Abstract: | A study conducted for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service evaluated pilot demonstrations designed to facilitate access by the elderly or working poor to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Among other key findings, two demonstrations targeting the elderly significantly increased access to nutritional assistance through SNAP. |
| Keywords: | SNAP, Access, Elderly, Working poor, outreach, application assistance, participation |
| JEL: | I0 I1 |
| Date: | 2014–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:2e4b50e5a70140ab9507b1296aa8844d&r=age |
| By: | Richard J. Manski; John F. Moeller; Haiyan Chen; Jody Schimmel; Patricia A. St. Clair; John V. Pepper |
| Abstract: | This study examined the use of physician, inpatient hospital, home health, and outpatient surgery for Americans more than 50 years of age. The study found that overall health and changes in health are more strongly correlated with seeking and using health care over time than financial status or changes to one’s financial status. |
| Keywords: | Health Care Utilization, Older Americans, Health Insurance Coverage, Health |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:f4cfe7c0c04a45ae914fb8715dca107c&r=age |
| By: | Johannes Geyer; Thorben Korfhage |
| Abstract: | In Germany, individuals in need of long-term care receive support through benefits of the long-term care insurance. A central goal of the insurance is to support informal care provided by family members. Care recipients can choose between benefits in kind (formal home care services) and benefits in cash. From a budgetary perspective family care is a cost-saving alternative to formal home care and to stationary nursing care. However, the opportunity costs resulting from reduced labor supply of the carer are often overlooked. We focus on the labor supply decision of family carers and the incentives set by the long-term care insurance. We estimate a structural model of labor supply and the choice of benefits of family carers. We find that benefits in kind have small positive effects on labor supply. Labor supply elasticities of cash benefits are larger and negative. If both types of benefits increase, negative labor supply effects are offset to a large extent. |
| Keywords: | Labor supply; long-term care; long-term care insurance; structural model |
| JEL: | J22 H31 I13 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0515&r=age |
| By: | Piotr Lewandowski; Iga Magda; Jan Baran; Olena Fedyuk (Center for Policy Studies (CEU CPS)); Attila Bartha (Center for Policy Studies (CEU CPS)) |
| Abstract: | Position of females on the European labour market has improved strongly over the past two decades. Changes in women’s employment were not only positive, but also managed to alleviate the negative developments in male employment rates, becoming thus a major driving force behind the efforts to achieve Lisbon’s employment goals. Yet, the observed changes were quite heterogeneous across countries and age groups. In particular, the process of female employment rates’ convergence was slow, as countries with worse initial conditions achieved only slightly higher increases in women’s employment rates. Older cohorts of women contributed most to the employment improvements, changes were also positive among prime-aged women, while the youngest ones experienced declining employment rates in a great majority of countries. A decomposition of the observed changes in female employment rates reveals that they were driven mostly by intensity improvements, i.e. pure “utilisation” of the labour among different cohorts of women. Increasing education levels played a relatively small role for the overall employment growth, while demography – though important for shifting the significance of particular age groups in the total workforce – had altogether virtually no effect for the overall female employment growth. The reviewed country studies suggest that the major policies driving increasing intensity of female employment were concentrated in two areas: retirement policies and those regarding flexible employment arrangements. Limiting access to early retirement schemes and increasing female statutory retirement age prolonged women’s labour market participation, and, in consequence, translated to increases in their employment rates. Reforms that aimed at introducing more flexibility into job contracts legislation, leading to more part time and/or more fixed term jobs, also appear to contribute positively to female employment rates, though the quality of these jobs remains a concern. |
| Keywords: | Employment Rate, Employment Growth, Decomposition, Females, Educational Change, Demographic Change |
| JEL: | J16 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp012013&r=age |
| By: | Ludovico Carrino (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Cà Foscari); Cristina Elisa Orso (Department of Economics, University Of Venice Ca’Foscari) |
| Abstract: | Although economic literature has recently started to concentrate on the design, the scope and the regulations of main public programmes of Long-Term-Care in Europe, no analysis have, so far, compared different systems in terms of their degree of inclusiveness with respect to vulnerable elderly’s health status. Focusing on several European countries, this paper investigate how LTC regulations assess vulnerability, as well as how they define a minimum level of objective-dependency that would entitle individuals to receive public benefits (in-kind or in-cash) for home-based care. Our contribution is threefold. We provide detailed information on assessment and eligibility frameworks for eleven LTC programmes in Europe. We show that substantial heterogeneities exist both at the extensive margin (the health-outcomes that are included in the vulnerability-assessment) and at the intensive margin (the minimum vulnerability threshold that defines benefit eligibility) of the assessment strategies. Building on this information, we compare LTC programmes in terms of their degree of inclusiveness, i.e., we investigate the extent to which each programme is able to cover a standard population of elderly individuals facing functional and cognitive limitations. The comparison is performed following both a directly- and an indirectly- adjusted strategy using SHARE data. |
| Keywords: | Long-term care, eligibility, access to home-care, vulnerability, direct adjustment, indirect adjustment, inclusiveness, Europe |
| JEL: | H53 I18 I11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ven:wpaper:2014:28&r=age |
| By: | International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department |
| Keywords: | Financial Sector Assessment Program;Stress testing;Banking sector;Liquidity;Insurance;Pensions;Risk management;Denmark; |
| Date: | 2014–12–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfscr:14/348&r=age |
| By: | Audra Wenzlow; Rosemary Borck; Dean Miller; Pamela Doty; John Drabek |
| Abstract: | This report explores interstate variations in long-term care (LTC) expenditure and service use patterns, not only in terms of institutional and non-institutional services, but also by Medicaid LTC users’ age and type of disability (for example, intellectual and developmental disabilities [ID/DD] or other adult-onset disabilities). Some states have reoriented more toward home and community-based services (HCBS) than others. It also well known that greater progress has been made in serving certain subgroups within the LTC population in the community (those with ID/DD) compared to others and that reliance on institutional care remains greatest among older adults, although interstate variations exist. This report seeks to quantify the magnitude of such differences. |
| Keywords: | state variation, Medicaid Long-term care use, Expenditures, 40 states, Disability, HCBS |
| JEL: | I J |
| Date: | 2013–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:6297eba14aa7484d8cad21d787ee9842&r=age |
| By: | Cecilia González (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República); Marisa Bucheli (Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República) |
| Abstract: | Uruguay comenzó su transición demográfica a principios del siglo veinte y tiene una población envejecida si se lo compara con los países de la región. A su vez, es un país con una larga tradición de gasto público en programas sociales, en particular con un sistema de jubilaciones y pensiones de gran cobertura. Esto plantea la preocupación por el enlentecimiento del crecimiento y por la sustentabilidad de los sistemas de protección a la tercera edad. Este trabajo se plantea identificar la existencia de un bono demográfico para Uruguay durante la segunda mitad del siglo veinte y analizar el efecto de los cambios demográficos esperados en un horizonte de cincuenta años sobre el bono demográfico y las cuentas públicas. La metodología utilizada se basa en Mason y Lee (2006, 2007) que plantean la dependencia económica no solo considerando la edad de los individuos sino también aspectos relacionados con su inserción en el mercado de trabajo y con su propensión a consumir. Se utilizan diferentes proyecciones de población y las estimaciones del Proyecto de Cuentas Nacionales de Transferencias (National Transfer Accounts) para Uruguay. Los resultados indican que el país disfruta de un bono demográfico positivo, pero alrededor del año 2025 pasará a ser negativo. Los valores del bono no son de gran magnitud, en especial en la comparación internacional. En este sentido, no se esperan grandes impactos económicos y fiscales a partir de los cambios demográficos planteados. |
| Keywords: | envejecimiento, bono demográfico, crecimiento económico |
| JEL: | J11 J14 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:1014&r=age |
| By: | Agnieszka Ch³oñ-Domiñczak; Maciej Lis |
| Abstract: | Development and maintaining skills in a life course through various lifelong learning activities is crucial to sustain employability, particularly in the context of longer working lives and more competitive economic environment. In the paper we investigate the determinants and obstacles in lifelong learning from a gender perspective. Based on the results of Labour Force Survey and Adult Education Survey we investigate the extent educational activity of adults in Europe as well as look barriers and obstacles to lifelong learning. |
| Keywords: | Life-long learning, Women |
| JEL: | I29 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp032013&r=age |