Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity (2022) / Chapter Skim
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3 A Longevity Dividend
3 A Longevity Dividend
Pages 51-86
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From page 51... ...
Figure 3-1 describes components of the commission's roadmap and timeline for achieving the economic and fiscal benefits of healthy longevity. The commission asserts that the longevity dividend is possible only with action across the domains discussed in this chapter in concert with those discussed in Chapters 4, 5, and 6.
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From page 52... ...
While longevity has been increasing globally, recent gains in longevity have come with more years in poor health (see Chapter 6)
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From page 53... ...
Some have called for "an end to retirement," not in terms of pensions or financial support but an end to the expectation that people should start work after receiving education, work for a long period, and then stop working altogether. Instead, as people need to work more years to support their longer lives, they will likely experience cycles of work, retraining, absence from the workforce, and reentry into the workforce across the life course.
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From page 54... ...
Measures of the Economic and Fiscal Impact of an Aging Society The standard narrative about aging societies in both popular culture and the academic literature assumes that a rapidly aging population leads to economic decline. More older people are assumed to create a smaller labor force, larger pension and health care costs, and therefore declining rates of GDP growth and rising public debts (Aksoy et al., 2019)
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From page 55... ...
Their results show that, while increased life expectancy is valuable, the highest value to the individual is achieved when healthy life expectancy increases to match life expectancy. The authors assert that, given current life expectancy and disease burden, slowing down aging and reducing the
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From page 56... ...
. A systematic review found an absence of negative impacts from working beyond retirement age, and 4 of 10 articles in the study showed statistically significant positive effects on mental health outcomes.
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It is important to note that work in unpaid household services is not counted as employment, largely explaining differences in labor-force participation rates by gender" (Staudinger et al., 2016, p.
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1) showed that younger retirement "did not change the risk of major chronic diseases but was associated with a substantial reduction in mental and physical fatigue and depressive symptoms, particularly among people with chronic diseases." One research team evaluated the relationships between individual characteristics and life satisfaction among people working after retirement age, defined as the combination of pension income and participation in paid work, in the European Union (EU)
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From page 59... ...
Lower-income countries already have high labor force participation rates among people over age 65 because many people work outside of the formal economy surviving on subsistence-level incomes. Absent a social pension, these people must work until they are physically or cognitively incapable of doing so.
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From page 60... ...
The goal of these policies was to decrease youth unemployment by having fewer older workers, but as discussed above, this notion has been discredited, and youth unemployment remained high even after older workers retired at earlier ages. In the United States, the only age group that has seen increased labor force participation rates year after year since 1996 is people aged 55 and older (see Figure 3-3)
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Current labor force participation among people aged 65 and older debunks the flawed assumption that people in this age group are unproductive. In 2018, their participation rates ranged from 13.7 percent in high-income countries to 49 percent in low-income countries.
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S284) As the above quotation suggests, attempts to influence labor force participation need to address the supply side by encouraging older people to remain in or rejoin the labor force.
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From page 63... ...
Health-related disabilities impact the ability to work in 25 percent of workers aged 60–61, and poor health decreases an older worker's chances of working longer. Workers in poor health are more likely than their healthier counterparts to transition out of work and into unemployment, disability pensions, and early retirement (Dingemans and Möhring, 2019)
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From page 64... ...
Although the data do not extend to older ages, the apparent discrimination against women as they age has troubling implications for obtaining these jobs. Older Workers' Productivity and Value on Intergenerational Teams A significant barrier to labor force participation is the perception that older people bring down the economy and the workplace.
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. Incentives for Older People to Work The most common strategy governments have used to increase labor force participation among older workers is raising the retirement age.
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66 FIGURE 3-5 Normal retirement age for men entering the labor market at age 22 with a full career. NOTE: OECD = Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development.
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. Given concerns about pension eligibility resulting in more income inequality, countries have initiated alternative approaches to increasing labor force participation rates and reaping the associated GDP boost through incentives.
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In the United States, for example, employers pay more for health insurance for older workers than for younger workers. When considering options for increasing labor force participation, governments may wish to focus on laws and regulations that create disincentives for hiring older workers.
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Worldwide, workers in the informal economy and new forms of work are vulnerable to income disruption and job loss and may lack access to a financial safety net and pensions (Ohnsorge and Yu, 2021)
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Conclusion 3-2: Raising the pension eligibility age increases workforce participation by older workers, but doing so to improve health is not justified by the evidence, and it may increase inequality. Conclusion 3-3: Maintaining economic equilibrium as the population ages will require increased workforce participation by older people.
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From page 71... ...
. "Practices of contributing, giving, and passing on have an important role in the self-identification of older people as contributing citizens, as individuals with self-worth, significance, and meaning" means that volunteering meets "basic psychological needs of self-esteem, socialization, life satisfaction, and contribution to others" (Stephens et al., 2015, p.
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. For older people, barriers to volunteering include "poor health and physical functioning, poverty, stigma, lack of skills, poor transport, time constraints, inadequate volunteer management, and other caring responsibilities" (Southby et al., 2019, p.
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From page 73... ...
. Experience Corps was designed using public health science to amplify the physical, cognitive, and social activity and engagement of older adults within and beyond their existing roles.
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The commission agreed that the evidence justifies government investments in shoring up and expanding existing volunteer programs. Some commissioners, but not all, went a step further in calling for major investments in national programs for older volunteers.
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Second, education puts people on a social and career trajectory leading to occupational gains and more labor force participation. Postsecondary education also influences health into older ages (Böheim et al., 2021)
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. In contrast, the commission emphasizes the need to develop literacy and numeracy across the life course to enable participation in society, the labor force, and health care.
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In a future with multiple career transitions, the commission anticipates higher educational enrollment across the adult life course. The overwhelming majority of job training and retraining takes place in the workplace.
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Metrics and Research Questions Given that structures to provide education and retraining across the life course are emerging, there are few metrics for such programs that would be of value, beyond a count of enrollment of people over age 25 in these programs, stratified by age in 10-year age bands and gender. To expand the availability of education and retraining options, research on the following questions is needed: • What characteristics of education and retraining programs would be needed to recruit people over age 25 into postsecondary education?
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The development of direct-to-consumer digital health products is beneficial for people with health care needs who lack access to care because of financial, geographic, and other barriers (Cohen et al., 2020)
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From page 80... ...
grants to individuals for engaging in midcareer training. METRICS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS Suggested metrics for evaluating progress on reaping the longevity dividend include • older worker labor force participation rates, • volunteer opportunities available for older adults, and • proportion of the population involved in volunteer activities.
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2019. Labor force participation rate for workers age 75 and older projected to be over 10 percent by 2026.
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2019. A life course perspective on working after retirement: What role does the work history play?
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2017. The effect of age-targeted tax credits on labor force participation of older workers.
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2021. The effect of an increase of the retirement age on the health, well-being, and labor force participation of older workers: A systematic literature review.
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2010. Marketing public health through older adult volunteering: Experience Corps as a social marketing intervention.
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