Comment vivre dans un monde vieillissant ? Les personnes âgées en France, 1800-1940

Jérôme Bourdieu () and Lionel Kesztenbaum
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Jérôme Bourdieu: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, LEA - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique

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Abstract: Compared with other European countries, population ageing began particularly early in France. That trend affected both societal organization and family ties. Examining changes in asset ownership by the French between 1820 and 1940 reveals that the proportion of people who died leaving no estate increased, and increased at every age. Taking this dual observation as a starting point, this paper seeks to analyse the strategies employed by older people to survive through old age, utilizing three types of resources: personal economic resources, family resources and state resources. The analysis shows the heterogeneity of this older age group and hence of the survival strategies deployed. Savings are a solution only for a minority; they enable access to other resources and in particular offer an alternative to continued employment. It is also shown that pensions, which were introduced gradually, facilitated more widespread access to savings. Lastly, the growing share of older people in the French population was accompanied by the increasing role of state support.

Keywords: Personnes âgées; 19ème siècle; 20ème siècle; France (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Published in Population (édition française), 2007, 62 (2), pp.221-252. ⟨10.3917/popu.702.0221⟩

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Working Paper: Comment vivre dans un monde vieillissant ? Les personnes âgées en France, 1800-1940 (2007)
Working Paper: Comment vivre dans un monde vieillissant ? Les personnes âgées en France, 1800-1940 (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00825189

DOI: 10.3917/popu.702.0221

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