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

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
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

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