The study of elderly entrepreneurship and its potential impact on labor, Social Security funds and regional economic growth is of significant importance, particularly for the US economy where population aging coincidentally intersects with the economic shift to a “knowledge economy”. On the one hand, aging, combined with a declining average retirement age, is expected to result in labor force shortages and Social Security fund exhaustion; yet on the other hand, the “knowledge economy” could elevate the value of elderly human capital as the “knowledge economy” is less physically demanding and more human-capital- and knowledge-based.Building on the utility maximization theory, economic growth theories and social theories of aging, this timely book addresses the old-age effect on entrepreneurial propensity; the sources of seniors' entrepreneurship, including the social and policy variables affecting seniors' entrepreneurship; and the economic, fiscal and labor impacts of elderly entrepreneurship.

The study of elderly entrepreneurship and its potential impact on labor, Social Security funds and regional economic growth is of significant importance, particularly for the US economy where population aging coincidentally intersects with the economic shift to a OC knowledge economyOCO. On the one hand, aging, combined with a declining average retirement age, is expected to result in labor force shortages and Social Security fund exhaustion; yet on the other hand, the OC knowledge economyOCO could elevate the value of elderly human capital as the OC knowledge economyOCO is less physically demanding and more human-capital- and knowledge-based.Building on the utility maximization theory, economic growth theories and social theories of aging, this timely book addresses the old-age effect on entrepreneurial propensity; the sources of seniors'' entrepreneurship, including the social and policy variables affecting seniors'' entrepreneurship; and the economic, fiscal and labor impacts of elderly entrepreneurship.

The Economics of Aging presents results from an ongoing National Bureau of Economic Research project. Contributors consider the housing mobility and living arrangements of the elderly, their labor force participation and retirement, the economics of their health care, and their financial status. The goal of the research is to further our understanding both of the factors that determine the well-being of the elderly and of the consequences that follow from an increasingly older population with longer individual life spans. Each paper is accompanied by critical commentary.

Japanese and American economists assess the present economic status of the elderly in the United States and Japan, and consider the impact of an aging population on the economies of the two countries. With essays on labor force participation and retirement, housing equity and the economic status of the elderly, budget implications of an aging population, and financing social security and health care in the 1990s, this volume covers a broad spectrum of issues related to the economics of aging. Among the book's findings are that workers are retiring at an increasingly earlier age in both countries and that, as the populations age, baby boomers in the United States will face diminishing financial resources as the ratio of retirees to workers sharply increases. The result of a joint venture between the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Japan Center for Economic Research, this book complements Housing Markets in the United States and Japan (1994) by integrating research on housing markets with economic issues of the aged in the United States and Japan.

The oldest members of the Baby-Boomer generation are now crossing the threshold of eligibility for Social Security and Medicare with extensive and significant implications for these programs’ overall spending and fiscal sustainability. Yet the aging of the Baby Boomers is just one part of the rapidly changing landscape of aging in the United States and around the world. The latest volume in the NBER’s Economics of Aging series, Discoveries in the Economics of Aging assembles incisive analyses of the most recent research in this expanding field of study. A substantive focus of the volume is the well-documented relationship between health and financial well-being, especially as people age. The contributors explore this issue from a variety of perspectives within the context of the changing demographic landscape. The first part of the volume explores recent trends in health measurement, including the use of alternative measurement indices. Later contributions explore, among other topics, alternate determinants of health, including retirement, marital status, and cohabitation with family, and the potential for innovations, interventions, and public policy to improve health and financial well-being.

This book integrates the economics of aging and insight based on political economy and explores generational conflict in the context of governmental spending. This problem is general, as the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted: lockdowns protect the elderly, but hurt the young. Policies to address global warming impose taxes on the elderly, but would bring benefits largely in the future. This book addresses intergenerational problems by placing its focus on budget allocation, taxation, and regulation. By using Japanese and US data, the authors conduct statistical analysis of whether regions with aging populations may adopt policies that generate benefits during a short period of time instead of policies that could benefit current young generations for an extended period of time. If the policy preferences of voters depend on their age, and if policy adoption by a government reflects public opinion, the change in demographic composition in a region may affect governmental policies. In an aged society, the elderly are pivotal voters. Budgets may be reallocated from policies favored by younger generations, such as education, to policies the elderly prefer, such as welfare programs. This generates an intergenerational externality problem: voters with short life expectancy do not take into consideration long-term benefits. Moreover, the current tax bases may be replaced by other tax bases that do not harm the elderly. The results reported in the book largely support these hypotheses. Evidence also shows that the gender and racial composition and institutional factors, including the extent of fiscal decentralization, are important in anticipating effects of population aging in other countries.