Aging Population: Problems and Policy Options in the US and Germany
通过比较德国和美国的制度，分析税收、补贴和法规在劳动力、金融和住房市场中的作用，探讨人口老龄化对经济的影响及政策选择。
Aging population Axel Börsch-Supan The expected change in the age structure of the industrialized countries will lead to a dramatically higher proportion of older people. In Germany, for example, 100 employed persons now support about 40 elderly. By 2030, this ratio will rise to 85 elderly people per 100 employed persons. This process will deeply affect labour, financial and housing markets. It will strain the social security systems, change the accumulation of aggregate wealth and skew its intergenerational distribution, while imposing a growing burden on family support by the young generation when the elderly are becoming frail and unable to live independently. This paper investigates the mechanisms at work in labour, financial and housing markets, drawing systematically on comparisons between German and US institutions to determine the role of taxes, subsidies and regulations. The evidence demonstrates that economic policies have powerful effects; some of them are also currently distortionary and interact with existing market imperfections, so that a serious consideration of policy options which may moderate the implications of population aging is called for.