The council of Economic Advisers on Work and Retirement among the Elderly

摘要

The 1999 Annual Report of the US Council of Economic Advisers (a document of some 450 pages, formally an Annex to the Economic Report of the President Transmitted to the Congress February 1999, Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office) addresses some of the questions an aging population raises for the American economy. (Aspects of this topic were also discussed in earlier Council reports; see the Documents section of the March 1996 and June 1997 issues of PDR.) Chapter 4 of the 1999 report is titled "Work, Retirement, and the Economic Well-Being of the Elderly." The excerpts from this chapter reproduced below provide a summary of the expected future changes in the age distribution of the US population--a result of improving life expectancy and low fertility--and the concomitant marked changes that will characterize the racial and ethnic composition of the elderly. The report notes recent declines in the rate of disability among persons aged 65 and older and discusses changing patterns of retirement and their muses. Despite long-term improvements in health and longevity, the retirement age has fallen rather than risen during the twentieth century. The report suggests, however, that this trend has now run its course, as influenced by the increasing dominance of physically less demanding service-sector jobs, more flexible work schedules (including availability of part-time employment), and changes in pension arrangements.