After the identification of several aging patterns (see blog articles on Japan, Sweden, Canada, the United States and France), in this post, we first present a synthetic picture of these aging patterns. We then move one step further to compare across countries the resources generated by economic activities to cover the "dependent" population in society. … Continue reading Facing aging – how employment plays a critical role
Education as a construction of self; as a lifelong cumulative process. In the following course, you will learn: What economists have in mind about education Education as a way for people to gain knowledge and skills for work Education as a way for people to develop behaviours and values to live in society Education does … Continue reading Education as a construction of self
In February 2018, INSEE (the French statistical agency) published a remarkable analysis of life expectancy in France in relation to a number of characteristics of the population, such as standard of living, gender, education level and region. Life expectancy in France is one of the highest in the world, so it was enough for me … Continue reading Aging in France: Special challenge of a population of working age that does not grow anymore
I was so much intrigued by Paul Krugman's tweet that I thought I would dig a bit deeper. Knowing that life expectancy differs significantly between men and women, I wanted to see how the picture would look like if one looks at the same difference to the OECD average, but by gender. And I must say I … Continue reading What has changed in the lives (and pattern of death) of American women and men?
A tweet by Paul Krugman, 2008 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, on December 31, 2017 caught my attention. As life expectancy is such an important factor in determining the pace of aging in the population, I thought the United States should have a very distinct population aging pattern. Hence, after looking at aging in Japan, … Continue reading Aging in the United States
Looking back at the year 2017 in statistics, Statistics Canada announced that for the first time in the very long history of the census, "there were more seniors (aged 65 and older) than children (aged 14 and younger)" . This gives us the opportunity to look at the evolution of aging in Canada, with the … Continue reading Aging in Canada
Following a comment from Kenny Petersson on the "Aging in Japan" post, I thought I would have a look at the aging problematic in Sweden, using the same charting and statistics I have presented for Japan. What it reveals is interesting, beyond the natural expectation that it would be quite different. What is the story … Continue reading Aging in Sweden
Demographic changes are tsunami: it flows through all aspects of personal life, social structures, labour market and economy. For the last fifty years and as projected for the next decades for as long as one can make projections, Japan experiences an extended, severe wave of aging. This post looks at the magnitude of the challenge. … Continue reading Aging in Japan: The magnitude of the challenge
In summary In two earlier posts, I proposed a metric to measure the "academic gap" – the distance between students performing the lowest and the recognized international benchmark for "average or standard performance". I measured the evolution of the academic gap between 2006 and 2012. In this post, I'm updating the profiles of the countries … Continue reading Academic gap: Any progress since 2012?
The introduction of minimum wages in the United States The early 1930s were the years of the Great Depression, an economic recession that affected the United States as well as most of the European metropolises. This crisis led many countries to enact social policies or reevaluate those in place to protect workers and stimulate the industry. … Continue reading Minimum Wage Policy in the United States
