Call for applications for a post-doctoral position in the project "Collaborations professionnelles et solidarités au travail dans les EHPAD : une interrogation au prisme de la crise sanitaire" (Colsol-EHPAD) at the University of Grenoble Alpes is extended until February 5, 2022.

Webinar "Is the politics of ageing creating conflict between generations?" hosted by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies on February 1, 2022 at 4:00 pm.

Webinar "Can the costs of caring for an ageing population be controlled?" hosted by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies on January 25, 2022 at 12:00 pm.

Conference at the University of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, on savings and pension finance in Europe on 29th August 2022. Call for papers open until 21st June 2022. 

8th IRDES-Dauphine Workshop on Applied Health Economics and Public Policy Evaluation on 23 and 24 June 2022. Call for paper submission open until 31 January 2022. 

HUMAN&GO is launching a call for projects from January 5 to 26, 2022, aimed at associations proposing a creative, supportive and socially useful project that targets people with disabilities, people with a loss of autonomy, sick or frail people or their caregivers.

Webinar "Focus on the pioneers of Humanitude" with Annie de Vivie on January 7 at 11am

Lu and Vogl published an article in the NBER, "Intergenerational Persistence in Child Mortality," in which they assessed the persistence of the risk of losing a child across generations. The results show that, within 44 developing countries and compared to women of the same age, those with at least one sibling who died in childhood are 39% more likely to have experienced at least one death of their own child. Within countries and over time, persistence declines with overall child mortality, so that mortality declines disproportionately benefit high-mortality lineages.

In the brief "Do retirees want to consume more, less, or the same as they age?", Chen and Munnell report that for households with assets and good health, their real consumption level remains relatively stable throughout their retirement. In contrast, for less wealthy households or those in poor health, consumption decreases as they grow older. 

Di Novi, Paruolo, and Verzillo published the article "The Role of Employment Protection Legislation Regimes in Shaping the Impact of Job Disruption on Older Workers' Mental Health in Times of COVID-19" wherein they study the relationship between labor market disruption in times of COVID-19 and the mental health of older workers, with respect to each country's labor legislation regime. Results reveal that the employment interruption had a positive impact on the psychological distress of older workers, especially in areas where legislation was more constraining. On the other hand, while legislation increased employment security for older workers who did not experience interruptions, it concurrently increased the uncertainty of those who were laid off. Through these findings, the authors advocate alleviating measures for older unemployed workers in countries with strict employment protection legislation.

Mao and Normand published an article "The effect of volunteering on employment: Evidence from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing" which examines the relationship between employment and volunteering in a sample of Irish people aged 50 to 80. The results suggest a substitutional relationship between volunteering and paid work that varies with the intensity of volunteering, gender and type of employment.

Fokina published the article "Relationship between vulnerability and life satisfaction in older population in Russia" which aims to assess the relationship between vulnerability and life satisfaction in older population in Russia. Results indicate that vulnerability is significantly associated with subjective well-being among the Russian elderly population. Yet, differences exist between age groups: for instance, an increase in physical vulnerability among 75-89 year olds reduces their subjective well-being more than among 60-74 year olds. In addition, the study shows that social engagement and financial status are major factors in life satisfaction among the elderly. In this respect, providing leisure facilities for the elderly and addressing their retirement issues should remain among the government's priorities.

Bergemann and Riphahn published the article "Maternal employment effects of paid parental leave" in which they examine the short-, medium- and long-term employment effects of a significant change in the German parental leave system. Prior to the 2007 reform, German mothers were able to claim means-tested "child-rearing benefits". Following the reform, these benefits were made available to all mothers without means testing. The results show that the reform caused a strong labor supply response in both the short and medium term, while labor market participation in the long term was not affected. In addition, the average total duration of return to the labor market of a mother with (or without) prior benefits after childbirth decreased by an average of 10 (8) months after the reform. The authors suggest that this significant effect of the reform is likely explained by changes in mothers' social norms and preferences for economic independence.

Razin and Horst Schwemmer published "Ageing and Welfare-state policy: Macroeconomic perspective" in the NBER. Their paper uses a general equilibrium model for public policy making to capture the effects of population ageing on low- and high-skilled migration quotas, social benefit provision, and taxation of labor and capital income. Findings suggest that population ageing is correlated with the shift from a relatively labor-rich (low retirement) country to a labor-poor (high retirement) country. In line with this shirt in the labor force, a capital-importing country becomes a capital-exporting-country, and an increase in the demand for social benefits due to ageing is offset by an increase in the cost of taxing labor and capital income.

Adriana Lleras-Muney has published in the NBER "Education and income gradients in longevity: the role of policy" which reviews known evidence on how education and income transfer policies can affect longevity and health. While data indicate that policies on education or income do not always succeed in improving health, the author discusses possible mechanisms for discrepancies in findings from different studies and offers guidance for future research. 

Hanewald, Bateman, Fan, and Ho published "Long-Term Care Insurance Financing Using Home Equity Release: Evidence from an Online Experimental Survey" in the NBER. This article explores, using an online survey of more than 1,000 Chinese homeowners between the ages of 45 and 64, new ways of financing long-term care using home equity. The estimation of potential demand for new financial products that provide users with access to real estate assets for the purpose of purchasing LTC insurance revealed that such access increases the reported willingness to purchase long-term care insurance. With only savings, respondents used an average of 5% of their total assets to purchase long-term care insurance. When they could use savings and a reverse mortgage, participants used 15% of their total wealth to purchase long-term care insurance. These findings are important for designing new public or private programs that would allow individuals to dispose of their housing wealth while still occupying their homes.

The OECD has just published its report "Rising from the COVID 19 crisis: Policy responses in the long-term care sector" in which they highlight that the long-term care sector was ill-prepared to deal with COVID 19; 40% of deaths due to covid-19 occurred in this sector (long-term care facilities or home care). The report gives recommendations to improve the sector's preparation for this type of shock: a higher staffing level will reduce covid-19 infections and the number of deaths. They recommend an update of the protocols for various scenarios, better coordination between the medical and social actors and better monitoring, with standardized data, of the strategies implemented. 

Dherbécourt, Fack, Landais and Stantcheva have published a CAE note on "Rethinking inheritance". In this note, they note that inheritance is a determining factor in the constitution of wealth; it represents 60% of total wealth in France. However, it reinforces wealth inequalities and the magnitude is much higher than income inequalities. This paper proposes a reform of the taxation of inheritance through four pillars. 1. Improving the information system to better assess and manage inheritance-related reforms. 2. Implementing a policy of taxing the inheritance stream received by an individual over his or her lifetime. 3. Review the estate tax base, including reducing exemptions and waivers that have limited economic justification. 4. Create a capital guarantee for the bottom of the distribution. This reform, which would broaden the base and lower nominal rates, could reduce the estate tax for 99% of the population and still bring in additional tax revenue. 

Ehrlich and Yin published "A cross-country comparison of old age financial readiness in Asian countries vs the United States: the case of Japan and the Republic of Korea" in the NBER. They compare the relative financial readiness of older households for retirement in Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States. They observe several financial channels of support for the elderly: public and private pension plans, family support, and private financial portfolio management. They find that older Americans benefit from more developed and better funded public and private pension systems and risky financial portfolios. Financial and pension markets are less developed in Asian countries than in the US. Finally, the level of education and health of heads of households and the wealth of households have an impact on the holding of risky assets. 

Freeman published an article in the NBER "Planning for the "Expected Unexpected": Work and Retirement in the US after the COVID-19 pandemic shock". In this article, Freeman argues that the pandemic caused the greatest loss of labour supply and an economic crisis that jeopardised long-term policies such as the financial sustainability of pension plans. The rescue plans, CARES and then ARPA, allowed a rapid and effective economic recovery. However, the pandemic will have had a lasting impact on the labour market, with the establishment of home-based work and the difficulty for people with long term covid to return to work. Freeman calls for effective planning for the future of work and retirement to go beyond trendy socio-economic analyses, to take into account unexpected shocks caused by natural circumstances. 

Shayne, Garcia and Cowan published an article on the NBER, "The impact of school and childcare closures on labor market outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic" which assesses the impact of school closures on parental labor supply during the COVID-19 pandemic. They find that school closures have little impact on parents' work stoppages. But they have a significant impact on working full-time and on the number of hours worked. These effects are particularly concentrated among low-skilled parents who therefore find it more difficult to adjust their work to school closures. 

In its note No. 77, the French Institute of Public Health (IPP) released a mapping of elderly people's loss of autonomy. This report revealed departmental differences in terms of prevalence, type of loss of autonomy and its onset at early ages. 

Ameriks, Caplin, Lee, Shapiro and Tonetti published an article in the NBER on "Cognitive decline, limited awareness, imperfect agency and financial well-being." The researchers show that cognitive decline can lead to poor financial decisions among older Americans. It would therefore be appropriate to transfer financial control to a trusted agent as soon as cognitive decline begins. However, cognitive decline is a process that occurs unnoticed. The researchers then show that wealth holders transfer financial control too late and this can lead to a significant loss of financial well-being. 

The CAE has published a note on "Skilled immigration: a visa for growth" in which Auriol and Rapoport note that immigration in France is, compared to other OECD countries, unskilled, undiversified and small in number. However, labor immigration, especially skilled immigration, could have considerable effects on economic growth in France in the long term. The economists therefore recommend, firstly, to centralize and systematize work visa applications from companies. Second, to evaluate the "talent passport" system and to develop it with a better evaluation of foreign diplomas. Secondly, they recommend improving the attractiveness of higher education for foreign students and facilitating the transition from education to employment. Finally, they propose a reform of France's migration policy to transform it into a points-based system, similar to the one implemented in Canada. 

In "The Effect of Labor Market Shocks Across the Life Cycle", Salvanes et al. investigate the consequences of unfavorable labor market shocks, through mass layoffs and establishment shutdowns, on individuals' main life decisions. Responses to these shocks are heterogeneous between age groups: early in their careers, individuals tend to invest in human capital and move to new employment opportunities; mid-career, they tend to reduce their fertility rate and adjust their decisions regarding family formation; late in their careers, they permanently withdraw from the labor market and retire. Because of the diversity in the impact of these shocks, the authors conclude that the focus should no longer be on the average effects among workers over the life cycle, but rather on the timing of the shocks throughout their careers. 

In the article "Are old regions less attractive? Internal labour migration in a context of population ageing", Paula Prenzel has investigated whether population ageing affects internal migration patterns. To this end, she has examined the likelihood of leaving a region as well as the destination choice for full-time employees in 326 German regions of different demographic profiles in 1997-2013. The study finds that the share of the older population in the home region is significantly correlated with the likelihood of migrating to another region. Furthermore, for mobile workers, results suggest that regions with higher proportions of older people are less likely to be chosen as destinations. This reflects a selective migration pattern that reinforces ageing phenoma and polarization of demographic structures.