Education, Elderly Health, and Differential Population Aging in South Korea: A Demographic Approach

Bongoh Kye, Erika Arenas, Graciela Teruel and Luis Rubalcava
Additional contact information
Bongoh Kye: Kookmin University
Erika Arenas: University of California, Los Angeles
Graciela Teruel: Universidad Iberoamericana
Luis Rubalcava: Spectron Desarrollo S.C.

Demographic Research, 2014, vol. 30, issue 26, 753-794

Abstract: Background: Population aging proceeds with other socioeconomic developments, including educational expansion. Improvements in educational attainment lead to changes in demographic behaviors such as assortative mating, fertility, and the intergenerational transmission of education, which change the health of the elderly and the education of their offspring generation. Objective: We examine such a jointly-changing process in South Korea. Methods: We apply a recursive demographic model (Mare and Maralani 2006) by using the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA). Results: First, improvements in education lead to improvements in health among the elderly. Intermediate demographic factors make positive contributions to this improvement. Second, improvements in education lead to a decline in the ratios of offspring to the elderly because better-educated people have fewer children. However, this decrease is not substantial. Third, improvements in education increase the ratio of college-educated offspring to the unhealthy elderly because of improvements in both offspring‘s education and elderly health. Conclusions: The results suggest that improvements in education change configurations of the elderly and their offspring‘s generations, mitigating the negative consequences of population aging, such as increasing burdens of elderly support.

Keywords: education; population aging; elderly health; South Korea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:demres:v:30:y:2014:i:26

DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2014.30.26

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