Population Aging, Intergenerational Transfers, and the Macroeconomy

With the global economy suffering and informed analyses wanting, any book with the term macroeconomy in the title seems enticing. The back dustcover suggests that this volume will be of interest to “students and scholars of population economics, public sector economics, welfare economics, social economics and public finance, ” as well as pension analysts and government policymakers. This edited volume, the proceedings of a 2006 international conference convened in Tokyo, is organized into three substantive sections, preceded by an introductory chapter: population aging and labor markets; savings and wealth; and policy. Chapters in the first section focus on retirement in Japan (by Clark, Ogawa, and Matsukura), productivity by age in Austria (by Prskawetz, Mahlberg, and Skirbekk), and survival probabilities and wealth in the US (by Bloom, Canning, Moore, and Song). The savings and wealth section has four chapters: on modelling aging and consumption (by Hock and Weil), transfers, capital, and consumption (by Mason and Lee), the effects of age on investment (by Lindh and Malmberg), and on population and healthcare spending in Japan (by Ogawa, Mason, Matsukura, and Nemoto). The last section, on policy, includes papers by de la Croix an