The Economic Effects of Aging in the United States and Japan

edited by Michael D. Hurd and Naohiro Yashiro

University of Chicago Press, 1997
Cloth: 978-0-226-36100-0 | Electronic: 978-0-226-36102-4
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226361024.001.0001

AVAILABLE FROM

University of Chicago Press (cloth, ebook)
Amazon Kindle (PDF)
Barnes & Noble Nook
Chegg Inc
DeGruyter Multi-User Ebook Program
ebrary
EBSCO eBooks (formerly NetLibrary)
Google Play
Kno

ABOUT THIS BOOKTABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Due to falling fertility rates, the aging of the baby-boom cohort, and increases in life expectancy, the percentage of the population that is elderly is expected to increase rapidly in the United States and Japan over the next two decades. These fourteen essays show that, despite differences in culture and social and government structure, population aging will have many similar macro and micro effects on the economic status and behavior of the elderly in both countries.

The most obvious effects will be on social programs such as public pension systems and the provision for medical needs of the elderly. But, the contributors demonstrate, aging will also affect markets for labor, capital, housing, and health care services. It will affect firms through their participation in the demand side of the labor market and through their provisions for pensions. And aging will influence saving rates, the rate of return on assets, the balance of payments, and, most likely, economic growth.

This volume will interest scholars and policy makers concerned with the economics of aging.

Preface

Introduction

I. Demography and Macroeconomic Impact of Aging

1. Projection of Japanese Public Pension Costs in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century and the Effects of Three Possible Reforms

2. The Effects of Demographic Trends on Consumption, Saving, and Government Expenditures in the United States

3. Population Aging and the Savings-Investment Balance in Japan

4. The Economic Position of the Elderly in Japan

II. Aging and Asset Markets

5. The Consequences of Population Aging for Private Pension Fund Saving and Asset Markets

6. The Effects of Aging on National Saving and Asset Accumulation in Japan

7. The Impact of Demographics on Housing and Nonhousing Wealth in the United States

8. Improvement of After-Retirement Income by Home Equity Conversion Mortgages: Possibility and Problems in Japan

III. Aging, Household Saving, and Retirement

9. The Effects of Special Saving Programs on Saving and Wealth

10. The Economic Status of the Elderly in Japan: Microdata Findings

11. Retirement Incentives: The Interaction between Employer-Provided Pensions, Social Security, and Retiree Health Benefits

12. Labor Market Implications of Social Security: Company Pension Plans, Public Pensions, and Retirement Behavior of the Elderly in Japan

IV. Public Pension Reform

13. Changing Social Security Survivorship Benefits and the Poverty of Widows

14. The Net Pension Debt of the Japanese Government

Contributors

Author Index

Subject Index