Coping with Population Ageing in the Netherlands

David Carey

No 325, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: Population ageing will reduce economic growth and increase the amount of resources that need to be transferred to the elderly, putting pressure on retirement-income- and healthcare insurance systems. The Netherlands is better placed than most OECD countries to meet these pressures because it has a large, funded occupational pension system in place. This advantage will be reinforced if the government adopts the policy that it is considering of pre-funding ageing-related budget outlays, which would entail paying off government debt over the next quarter century. Increasing labour force participation, notably for older persons would also attenuate the economic pressures associated with population ageing. In this regard, it will be important to reduce incentives for economic inactivity, especially by reforming early retirement schemes and disability insurance. Finally, raising productivity growth could also help ease these pressures by facilitating a de-coupling of government ...

Faire face au vieillissement de la population aux pays-bas Le vieillissement de la population va entraîner un ralentissement de la croissance économique et un accroissement des transferts de ressources au profit de la population âgée, d’où des tensions dans les systèmes de retraite et d’assurance maladie. Les Pays-Bas sont en meilleure situation que la plupart des autres pays de l’OCDE pour absorber ces tensions, car ils possèdent un important système de pensions professionnelles capitalisé. Cet avantage sera renforcera encore si le gouvernement adopte la politique qu’il envisage de préfinancement des charges qui pèseront sur le budget, ce qui permettrait d’amortir la dette de l’Etat sur le prochain quart de siècle. L’accroissement du taux d’activité, notamment des personnes âgées, atténuerait également les pressions économiques dues au vieillissement de la population. A cet égard, il portera de réduire les incitations à l’inactivité économique, en réformant en particulier les systèmes de préretraite et l’assurance ...

Keywords: health care; long-term projections; Netherlands; Pays-Bas; pensions; population ageing; prévisions à long terme; retraites; système de santé; vieillissement de la population (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I1 I3 J1 J26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-03-06
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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