May 2023

The Future of AI and Older Adults

By Laurie M. Orlov  Advances in AI got the full attention of the technology industry, which is undergoing its first major disruption since the arrival of smart speakers and voice in 2014. Multiple industries see compelling opportunities, including healthcare providers, senior living, customer service providers, training and remote monitoring service offerings. Government organizations are investing in AI and aging startups and programs. Although there are a number of barriers to adoption, in the not-so-distant future, machine learning, chatbots, and AI in the home...

Can the Australian Judicial System Meet the Structural Challenges of Future Population Change?

By Brian Opeskin  This article examines the impact of population change on the evolution of the Australian judicial system. Through four case studies, it argues that demography is an important but overlooked lens through which to understand pressures on the judicial system over coming decades. The case studies examine the impact of increasing life expectancy on judicial tenure; of population ageing on judicial pensions; of international migration on judicial diversity; and of population redistribution on the spatial delivery of justice...

Developments in the Economics of Aging (National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report)

By David A. Wise  The number of Americans eligible to receive Social Security benefits will increase from forty-five million to nearly eighty million in the next twenty years. Retirement systems must therefore adapt to meet the demands of the largest aging population in our nation’s history. In Developments in the Economics of Aging, David A. Wise and a distinguished group of analysts examine the economic issues that will confront policy makers as they seek to design policies to protect the...

April 2023

Aging, Inadequacy, and Fiscal Constraint: The Case of Thailand

By Phitawat Poonpolkul, Ponpoje Porapakkarm & Nada Wasi We use an overlapping generations model to study the challenge in developing countries with a large informal sector and aging populations. We use Thailand as a case study and incorporate its labor market structure and its public pension system into the calibrated model. Unlike developed countries, workers in developing countries commonly transit from the formal sector to the informal sector, which can be in the early stage of their working life. This...

January 2023

Older Adults and Technology Use

By: Aaron Smith America’s seniors have historically been late adopters to the world of technology compared to their younger compatriots, but their movement into digital life continues to deepen, according to newly released data from the Pew Research Center. In this report, we take advantage of a particularly large survey to conduct a unique exploration not only of technology use between Americans ages 65 or older and the rest of the population, but within the senior population as well. Two different groups of older Americans...

Promoting an Age-Inclusive Workforce

All OECD economies are undergoing rapid population ageing, leading to more age diversity in workplaces than ever before as people are not only living longer but working longer. Greater diversity of experience, generations and skills gives employers an important opportunity to harness the talent that different age groups bring to the workplace and improve productivity and profitability. What can employers do to maximise the benefits of a multigenerational workforce? This report presents a business case for embracing greater age diversity...

Towards construction of comprehensive care systems in Latin America and the Caribbean: ELEMENTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

By ECLAC The Latin American and Caribbean region is experiencing an unprecedented economic and social crisis. The effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have spread to all spheres of human life, hurting economies, changing the way we interact, and causing extensive societal changes. The crisis has highlighted and exacerbated structural gaps, deepening pre-existing inequalities and exposing the vulnerabilities of political, economic, and social protection systems. The onset of the crisis magnified the structural challenges of gender inequality, reversing much...

December 2022

Inferring Occupation Arduousness from Poor Health Beyond the Age of 50

Inferring Occupation Arduousness from Poor Health Beyond the Age of 50

By: Vincent Vandenberghe In the absence of a direct description of occupation arduousness, this paper shows how it can be inferred from poor health beyond the age of 50. Using retrospective lifetime data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) including the respondents’ professional career described with ISCO 2-digit, this paper finds a statistically significant link between many occupations and the risk of poor health beyond the age of 50. Next, we quantify the relative contribution...

Intergenerational Solidarity

By Alan Gutterman Aging is a natural progression of the life cycle and society will always have persons of different ages who need to learn to live alongside one another. One of the most consistent themes in the debate regarding the realization of the human rights of older persons is the need to strengthen “intergenerational solidarity” between and among all levels of families, communities and nations in order to achieve social cohesion and a society for all ages and build...

November 2022

Cognitive Abilities, Self-Efficacy, and Financial Behavior

By Ning Tang This paper investigates the effect of cognitive abilities on financial behavior among older adults. Using the longitudinal dataset of the Health and Retirement Study, I find that cognitive abilities significantly affect financial behavior through two channels: ability and self-efficacy. People with higher cognition scores, who presumably are more capable of processing information and analyzing problems, achieve better financial outcomes. This positive association is especially strong in tasks having high demand of cognitive ability, which confirms the ability...