Economic development and population ageing

Present paper is aimed to discuss the association between cognitive test performance, based on Hindi Mini-Mental State Examination (HMMSE), and various self rated psychiatric symptoms among the elderly in different rural areas of Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, States of India. Study in these two states Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Kerala may gives a true picture of India's profiles related to elderly population in almost all respects. The results based on these two Indian states can be compared with the results of any developed and developing country of Asian region.
This study is based on a specially designed sample survey entitled “Socio-Economic Status, Behavioral Problems and Health Hazards of The Elderly Across Diverse Setting in India” of about 1000 elderly people selected from the above two states comprising 600 elderly people from UP and 400 from Kerala.
As a result, the median score based on HMMSE was found less among the elderly sample in Kerala as compared to UP. The low scoring in HMMSE was found significantly associated with higher age and low educational level of the elderly. However, the symptoms of sadness, depressive thoughts, social withdrawal and agitation feeling were also found to be significantly related with HMMSE scores.

This paper presents an analysis of a recent elaboration process of population policies and development conducted in Uruguay, a demographically small middle-income country that has aged early, with a very advanced demographic transition and fertility rates below replacement levels since 2004. Towards 1930 Uruguay had already culminated its demographic transition, with comparatively low gross birth and mortality rates as compared with the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean. As a result, the population’s age structure already showed important signs of aging by 1950, and this continued deepening further to date. The economic restrictions faced by the political responses are greater than those of industrialized countries which have experienced similar demographic processes. The strong financial pressures on the retirement and health systems, and in more general terms the concern of the political elites’ regarding the country’s demographic sustainability determined the generation of a new institutional environment related with the design of population policies. This paper resorts to a collection of laws, programs and actions, together with the rationales detailed in the corresponding accompanying statements of intent, in order to analyze these innovations with the contexts and reasons that contributed to foster them.

The paper explores the value of older persons and assesses the extent to which they make contributions to development in Uganda. The key indicators of value considered are current engagement in income-generating activities, possession of basic ethno-science knowledge and advice on conduct and behaviour.

Logistic regression model shows age, sex, education, country region and role played in social organisations influence engagement in income-generating activities. Possession of basic ethno-science knowledge is influenced by country region in which older persons live. Advice on conduct and behaviour is influenced by age, place of residence, country region, education and role played in social organisations.

The conclusion is that older persons play vital roles and possess valuable ethno-science knowledge which can be harnessed towards contributing to national development. It is recommended that institutionalisation of a non-contributory pension arrangement in Uganda be put in place for a more sustainable process of active aging. A national framework for recognising, profiling and documenting the value of older persons is further recommended as a strategy for improving the quality of old age-specific information in the country.

Understanding subjective life expectancy (SLE) is critical for pension policy design and longevity insurance markets. Yet there are very few studies that focus on this question. This paper is the first of its kind to analyse subjective life expectancy in rural China. It draws on a new national survey in which participants were asked at what age an average person might die. This was interpreted as requesting a personal estimate of life expectancy, an interpretation supported by gender and regional differences in reported values.
This paper statistically analyses the relationship between SLE and various demographic, social and economic factors. Current analysis focuses on two provinces, one rich and one poor. The results indicate that demographics and family relationships are more important than economic status in people’s perceptions of their life expectancy. We compare SLE with census-based life expectancy. Results suggest that both men and women over the age of 60 underestimate their life expectancy relative to national data. But while younger women also underestimate life expectancy, younger men over-estimate time to death relative to national estimates.

The main objective of this presentation is to explore the demographic dynamics of the aged population in Bangladesh. It is important as aged people have appeared in national population and development context as a significant proportion of 7.5% of the total population in the last census, 2011. Secondary information was analysed to have an overview of demographic and related socio-economic context. The dramatic fertility decline in the 1990s and declining mortality trends have set the demographic background for the emergence of ageing. The situation became more favourable and absolute number of aged people has become an overwhelming 10.77 million in 2011 which is larger than total population of many countries. The growth rate of aged has always been higher than the national population since the 1990s and it has become more than double than the national population for the first time in 2011. With lots of demographic and socio-economic diversity, this huge population is struggling to maintain humanly amidst an emerging unfavourable socio-cultural milieu due to urbanisation, modernisation and overall underdevelopment context. This presentation found it necessary to explore and analyse aged population’s demographic and socio-economic dynamics to have proper policies and its implementation to ameliorate its vulnerability.

South Korea, one of Asia’s most successful developmentalist state, has marked rapid economic growth and shown fast recovery from economic crises. The state at an early stage of economic development necessarily implemented industrialization and urbanization, and at a later stage experienced democratization and globalization. A series of the process has been inevitably accompanied with demographic change that was particularly striking after the emergence of global capitalism. The most notable features of the changing demography include ageing population, declining birth rate, a wide arrange of new household types, and reduction in household size. The demographic transitions have been so obvious to transform housing system. This study is to look into the relationship between economic growth and demographic change, and to examine how these affect and are affected by housing transformation. In doing so, wide arrays of national data are used, and it’s obvious that housing norms (e.g., structure type, tenure, size and expenditure) are changed to react to the needs of major actors changing the state’s demography – the elderly, single persons and baby boomers. Therefore, the conventional path for traditional families toward homeownership is no longer ensured, and the recent economic downturn concerns housing affordability.

Some decades go Mexico was a low-income country. Now it is in a middle-income level, albeit full of disparities including poverty. Such socio-economic path has shaped the life course of the elderly population. Development has been slower than the rapid aging process and its effects on health and social security. Emerging chronic diseases are major causes of morbidity, disability and death, along with prevailing infectious diseases. Social security is on the verge of bankruptcy. The macro situation because of aging is complex. Holistic prospective scenarios drafted over a changing age structure foresee and unaffordable epidemiological transition, impossibility to pay vested pension rights, economic insecurity, poverty, inadequate health system. Looking for elucidation such scenarios can be compared with similar experiences in, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica.

Population aging is an inevitable global demographic process. Most of the literature on the consequences of demographic change focuses on the challenges that economies and societies will face as people live longer and have fewer children. In this paper, we (a) describe key trends and projections of the magnitude and speed of population aging, (b) review the literature on the economic, social and environmental consequences of population aging, and (c) investigate the opportunities that aging societies create. We argue that there are relevant positive unintended consequences of population aging that can be leveraged to address pressing environmental problems, and issues of gender inequality and intergenerational ties.

Will population decline and aging lead to less pollution, and environmental damage? Will expenditures for the young and old balance if huge private downward transfers (bequests) are taken into account? Will the younger generations increase the time spent caring for the elderly and receive higher transfers from the older generations? Will the increasing share of individuals proceeding to tertiary education boost economic growth? We address these questions using a wide range of data including National Transfer Accounts, projections of CO2 emissions, labor force by educational attainment, and time transfers.

This study investigates how socio-demographic indicators impact on well-being at old age in Nigeria. This is essential in order to improve the preparation for old age. Reliable information is also required to formulate comprehensive social security system for the elderly. Quantitative data were collected through individual-based questionnaire. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select local government areas, enumeration areas and individuals for the study. In all, 200 respondents were interviewed. The study found that in terms of education, more than a quarter of the respondents with high education have better economic wellbeing. Level of education is statistically related to level of satisfaction with old age wellbeing. Among the females, less than one-fifth of the respondents reported satisfaction with old age economic wellbeing. Type of family is somewhat statistically related to elderly persons’ economic wellbeing. This underscores the inadequacy of their income from pension. In conclusion, the idea that old-age security and well being in Nigeria should remain the primary responsibility of the family is untenable. Government must assume the primary responsibility in a partnership in which the family also continues to play a significant role.