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Aging in the United States and Japan

Economic Trends

Japanese and American economists assess the present economic status of the elderly in the United States and Japan, and consider the impact of an aging population on the economies of the two countries.
With essays on labor force participation and retirement, housing equity and the economic status of the elderly, budget implications of an aging population, and financing social security and health care in the 1990s, this volume covers a broad spectrum of issues related to the economics of aging. Among the book’s findings are that workers are retiring at an increasingly earlier age in both countries and that, as the populations age, baby boomers in the United States will face diminishing financial resources as the ratio of retirees to workers sharply increases.

The result of a joint venture between the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Japan Center for Economic Research, this book complements Housing Markets in the United States and Japan (1994) by integrating research on housing markets with economic issues of the aged in the United States and Japan.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction 1
Yukio Noguchi, David A. Wise.
1: Aging and Labor Force Participation: A Review of Trends and Explanations 7
Robin L. Lumsdaine, David A. Wise.
2: Social Security Benefits and the Labor Supply of the Elderly in Japan 43
Atsushi Seike, Haruo Shimada.
3: The Economic Status of the Elderly in the United States 63
Michael D. Hurd
4: Household Asset- and Wealthholdings in Japan 85
Noriyuki Takayama
5: Problems of Housing the Elderly in the United States and Japan 109
Daniel L. McFadden
6: The Cost of Aging: Public Finance Perspectives for Japan 139
Seiritsu Ogura
7: Financing Health Care for Elderly Americans in the 1990s 175
Alan M. Garber
Contributors 195
Author Index 197
Subject Index 201

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