Demography And Retirement

Key Demographics in Retirement Risk Management argues that the weakening of public and employer-sponsored social safety nets in several countries will permanently increase pre-retirees’ risk-anxiety and create pressure towards readjustment of their expectations about the quality of their lives in retirement. The result will be to raise the priority of achieving effective comprehensive retirement related risk management. This achievement requires an emphasis upon the cascading of linked risks, and careful attention to the optimization of scarce resources used to manage those linked risks. Professional financial and retirement planning advisors comprise a key source of help. This book develops new knowledge concerning the factors that help to explain three important aspects of access to these professional advisors. The results of this analysis are used to illustrate the process of identifying distinctive population segments, key demographics, on the basis of multiple population attributes treated simultaneously. The illustration is further extended with an identification of distinctive population segments relative to performance on a composite indicator of the conduct of multiple retirement risk management activities. The book also discusses implications of the pattern of gender differences in preparedness to address retirement’s challenges, highlighting subgroups of women in which inadequate preparedness is pronounced.

This contributed volume provides a broad-based and in-depth exploration of demographic and related issues facing American society as it anticipates the retirement of the so-called baby boomers. The work provides a critical examination of the population and labor force projections most commonly used in discussions of retirement in the next century; looks at issues relating to the health and age structure of the population, examining those issues in the context of support mechanisms for retirement income security; and considers the potential lessons to be learned from the experiences of other industrialized societies in dealing with an aging population.

By 2030, when most American baby boomers will have retired, all the large industrial economies will see a massive increase in the old age population. This book examines population aging and its implications for public retirement programs in the five largest industrial economies--Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. The authors report on national demographic trends, examine the current living conditions of the aged population, explain the structure of the retirement system, and offer estimates of future budgetary costs of the public programs. They also discuss national debates over the potential reform of public retirement systems. While all five countries share the prospect of an older population, variations in the size and timing of demographic change, as well as important differences in the structure of public programs for the elderly, suggest that population aging will have widely different implications in each country. In Germany and Japan, for example, the population will not only grow older but may actually decline because of low birth rates. The United States will experience less aging, but its debate over reform treats seriously the possibility of privatizing public retirement commitments.

This book attempts to document the ongoing, and especially the most recent, transformation of retirement in Canadian society. Such transformation is coming about because of such factors as the growing number of women retirees, changing economic conditions, types of jobs being created, involuntary or early retirement, and restrained government spending. The book examines changes in the transition to retirement along three dimensions: the timing of retirement, and specifically the trend toward retirement at younger ages; the process of retirement, sometimes preceded by a period of unemployment or non-standard employment; and the financing of retirement, including the sources of income and the distribution of income among retiree groups.

The United States is in the midst of a major demographic shift. In the coming decades, people aged 65 and over will make up an increasingly large percentage of the population: The ratio of people aged 65+ to people aged 20-64 will rise by 80%. This shift is happening for two reasons: people are living longer, and many couples are choosing to have fewer children and to have those children somewhat later in life. The resulting demographic shift will present the nation with economic challenges, both to absorb the costs and to leverage the benefits of an aging population. Aging and the Macroeconomy: Long-Term Implications of an Older Population presents the fundamental factors driving the aging of the U.S. population, as well as its societal implications and likely long-term macroeconomic effects in a global context. The report finds that, while population aging does not pose an insurmountable challenge to the nation, it is imperative that sensible policies are implemented soon to allow companies and households to respond. It offers four practical approaches for preparing resources to support the future consumption of households and for adapting to the new economic landscape.

Across the EU, populations are shrinking and ageing. An increasing burden is being placed on a smaller working population to generate the taxes required for pensions and care costs. Welfare states are weakening in many countries and across Europe, households are being increasingly expected to plan for their retirement and future care needs within this risky environment. At the same time, the proportion of people buying their own home in most countries has risen, so that some two-thirds of European households now own their homes. Housing equity now considerably exceeds total European GDP. This book discusses questions like: to what extent might home ownership provide a potential cure for some of the consequences of ageing populations by realizing housing equity in order to meet the consumption needs of older people? What does this mean for patterns of inheritance and longer-term inequalities across Europe? And to what extent are governments banking on their citizens utilising their housing wealth now and in the future?

As boomers move towards retirement the phenomenon of "population aging" has become a much-publicized issue. Independence and Economic Security in Old Age focuses on the economic and social implications of aging at the level of the individual and of society as a whole. The product of a three-year research program, the book contains chapters by recognized experts in the fields of economics and econometrics, sociology, social work, medicine, epidemiology, gerontology, and nursing.