Alternative Views of Population Ageing

William Jackson

A chapter in The Political Economy of Population Ageing, 1998, pp 69-94 from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

Abstract: Neoclassical economics gives a sparse account of population ageing, centred on individualism, rational choice and market-clearing equilibrium, which omits many social and structural factors. This chapter discusses alternative views of population ageing, drawn from social gerontology, other social sciences and heterodox economics, that can offset the omissions. Two strands of thought are emphasised: structural approaches highlighting the social construction of old age and the institutionalisation of the life course, and disequilibrium approaches treating unemployment as a normal trait of capitalist economies and a mediator of demographic changes. A case is made for bringing the two strands together in a layered, non-reductionist treatment of population ageing better suited to capturing its subtlety and complexity.

Keywords: population ageing; social structure; structured dependency; disequilibrium; Keynesian economics; layered social theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 B50 E12 J11 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/344193/1/A ... opulation-Ageing.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:eschap:344193

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in EconStor Open Access Book Chapters from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().