Fiscal Policy Issues in the Aging Societies
Aging may be one of the most far-reaching processes defining the economic, fiscal, and social changes societies are likely to experience over the next 40 years. The demographic consequences of aging will have a dramatic impact on labor markets, eco...
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
2015
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/03/24200847/fiscal-policy-issues-aging-societies http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21782 |
Summary: | Aging may be one of the most
far-reaching processes defining the economic, fiscal, and
social changes societies are likely to experience over the
next 40 years. The demographic consequences of aging will
have a dramatic impact on labor markets, economic growth,
social structures--and government budgets. These issues have
gained urgency after the second largest global recession in
the past 100 years. Based on a broad comparative analysis of
countries that include the EU and non-EU European and
Central Asian countries, as well as several case studies and
model simulations, the paper seeks to provide broad
answers--tailored in part to distinct groups of countries
according to their aging-fiscal profiles--to major questions
facing governments budgets in aging societies: What are the
fiscal-aging profiles of Western European, emerging
European, and Central Asian countries? In other words, how
good or bad is their fiscal situation--"initial
conditions"--in view of their emerging aging-related
problems? What kind of public spending pressures are likely
to emerge in the coming decades, and what will be their
relative importance? How do countries compare in terms of
the possible impacts of aging on growth and long-term debt
sustainability? What can be learned from in-depth and
comparative case studies of aging, fiscal sustainability,
and fiscal reform? Are there good-practice
examples--countries doing things right at the right
time--that may offer lessons for the others? And, perhaps
most important, given the need for long-term fiscal
consolidation for many countries, what kind of revenue and
expenditure policy agendas are likely to emerge to mitigate
the effects of aging? A key policy conclusion is that
countries should aim for early rather than delayed reforms
dealing with long-term aging pressures. The urgency is
accentuated by the debt situations and/or adverse debt and
demographic dynamics in almost all countries but also by the
evolving voter preferences. As societies age and voting
preferences increasingly reflect the political will of the
older population, it will become more difficult to enact the
necessary reforms ensuring social and fiscal sustainability. |
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