Demographic Change Across the Globe: Maintaining social security in ageing economies

This paper investigates the fiscal pressure, or the level of public expenditure on old and young economically inactive people, arising from demographic change in relation to the labour market space, or the proportion of the working age population not in full-time employment. The exercise is carried...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inWorld economics (Henley-on-Thames, England) Vol. 13; no. 2; p. 75
Main Authors Peeters, Marga, Groot, Loek
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Henley-on-Thames NTC Publications Ltd 01.04.2012
Subjects
Changes
Demographics
Developing countries
Government spending
Labor market
LDCs
Social security
Studies
Greece
Poland
Turkey
India
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Summary:This paper investigates the fiscal pressure, or the level of public expenditure on old and young economically inactive people, arising from demographic change in relation to the labour market space, or the proportion of the working age population not in full-time employment. The exercise is carried out for 50 countries that cover 75% of the world population. The pressure-to-space indicator ranks Poland, Turkey and Greece high, although, apart from Turkey and India, developing countries generally rank low due to low spending on the old (pensions, healthcare) and on the young (education, family costs). Peculiarly, economies with higher pressure have more space. The hypothesis that ageing economies have started using their labour market space in anticipation of higher demographic pressure is rejected. It is important to note that raising the retirement age in developed economies by five years alleviates fiscal pressure by almost 30% and creates 10% more labour market space. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1468-1838
1474-3884