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Population aging and the economic role of the elderly: Bonanza or burden?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2010

Ronald D. Lee
Ronald D. Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Demography, University of California–Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720. [email protected]://www.ceda.berkeley.edu/peoplenew/rlee.html
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Abstract

As societies industrialize, the age profile of consumption tilts strongly toward the elderly, while elder labor supply drops. Low fertility and long life lead to population aging. For millennia, material resources have, on net, flowed downward from older to younger within populations, but now in many rich societies net flows have reversed and go upwards from young to old.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 31 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

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Lee, R. D., Lee, S-H. & Mason, A. (2008) Charting the economic life cycle. In: Population aging, human capital accumulation, and productivity growth, ed. Prskawetz, A., Bloom, D. E. & Lutz, W.. (A supplement to Population and Development Review, vol. 33). Population Council of New York.Google Scholar