Old-age Support Systems Research Articles

Health Capacity to Work at Older Ages in the Republic of Korea

Health Capacity to Work at Older Ages in the Republic of Korea

Intergenerational transfers and China’s social security reform

Abstract Most of the studies examining the implications of social security reforms in China use overlapping generations models and abstract from the role of family support. However, in China, family support plays a prominent role in the well-being of the elderly and often substitutes for the lack of government-provided old-age support systems. In this paper, we investigate the impact of social security reform in China in a model with two-sided altruism as well as a pure life-cycle model. We show that the quantitative implications of social security reform, in particular for capital accumulation and output, are very different across the two models.

Why Does Population Aging Matter so Much for Asia? Population Aging, Economic Growth, and Economic Security in Asia

Asia as a whole is experiencing a rapid demographic transition toward older populations, though different countries are at different stages of this region wide trend. We document Asia’s aging population, describe the region’s old-age support systems, and highlight the regional socioeconomic implications of the transition for those support systems. Aging populations present two fundamental challenges to Asian policymakers: developing socioeconomic systems that can provide economic security to growing numbers of elderly while sustaining strong economic growth over the next few decades. Successfully addressing these two challenges will be vital for ensuring Asia’s continued economic success in the medium and long term.

Intergenerational cohabitation in modern Indonesia: filial support and dependence

Informal filial care plays an important role for elderly parents facing health challenges. Ageing, however, exacerbates the burden of filial care because the ratio of older to younger individuals is higher and disabled parents live longer. The well-being of elderly parents is even more insecure in Asian developing countries that are undergoing unprecedented ageing and drastic changes in social norms and values, whereas old-age support systems have yet to be developed. In this paper, we investigate factors that influence cohabitation decision by elderly parents and their adult children using the longitudinal Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS). Focusing on new cohabitation in which a parent who lives independently starts to cohabitate with a child, we conduct transition analysis to make a more convincing causal interpretation than the standard cross-sectional approach. We find that, while parental needs are important, cohabitation is influenced to a larger extent by the costs and gains of children. The elderly facing health and economic challenges are at higher risk of not receiving filial support than other elderly individuals.

The differential impact of social-pension income on household poverty alleviation in three South African ethnic groups

Social pension programmes play a key role in old-age support systems through their ability to reach vulnerable older persons. Pension income helps to sustain households affected by extreme poverty and vulnerability, by providing resources for spending that protects against vulnerability, and thereby they facilitate economic and social development. Under apartheid, South Africa's citizens were categorised according to race, and persons classified as Asian, black and coloured (mixed race) had less access to the opportunities and resources available to whites. Parity in the amount of social pension benefits paid to beneficiaries in the different ethnic categories was achieved only in 1993. The Non-Contributory Pensions and Poverty Study (NCPPS), conducted in Brazil and South Africa, has assessed the impact of social pension income on household poverty alleviation. This paper draws on the findings of the South African survey to analyse the differential effects of pension income on household poverty alleviation in three ethnic-geographic groups. Its data show a pervasive social and economic gradient of disadvantage among the groups, with rural-black households being most disadvantaged, urban-coloured households least disadvantaged, and urban-black households in between. The impact of pension income on household poverty alleviation has a similar pattern. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for the achievement of equity through informed policy interventions.

Regional Variation in Family Support for the Elderly in China: A Geodevelopmental Perspective

The author examines the impact of rapid social change and economic development on family support for older parents in contemporary urban China. Based on the 1992 Survey on China's Support Systems for the Elderly, the author uses three levels of economic development as proxies for developmental stages in a study carried out from a geodevelopmental perspective. It is found that intergenerational support in urban China is persistent as far as instrumental support is concerned, and that the level of support follows a U-shaped pattern along the axis of economic development. It is in the mid-developed urban areas that intergenerational support seems the weakest. If the pattern from the less-developed to the developed urban areas reflects a time path, then the suggested trajectory will not lead to a convergence with the old-age support system found in the West. The author concludes that, although some aspects of economic support for the elderly will likely be consistent with modernization theory, the old-age support system in China is, on the whole, likely to diverge from the path seen in the West.

Dependency of the Chinese elderly: an exploration.

The paper explores the Chinese elderly’s dependency, or need for assistance, in four key functional areas: physical, mental, social and economic, based on data from the 1992 National Survey on the Old-age Support System (NSOSS). The approximate indicators, selected on data availability, show that the dependency rates of the elderly differed markedly by functional area. Only a very small proportion of the elderly were physically dependent or partly dependent. In contrast, economic dependency was a common phenomenon. The dependency rates varied by age, sex and urban-rural residence. Older people, females and rural residents were more likely to have a higher need for assistance. These findings have major policy implications in old age support and aged care programs.