Demographic Change, Economic Growth, and Old-Age Economic Security: Asia and the World

Asia is aging, although there is significant heterogeneity across subregions and economies. Population aging poses two strategic challenges for the region: sustaining economic growth and delivering old-age economic security. In this paper, we leverage the lifecycle perspective—that individuals’ consumption and labor income differ at each age—and the National Transfer Accounts database to construct and analyze key economic indicators. Our analysis confirms that demographic change will challenge the region’s future growth and increase the cost of funding the consumption of the elderly. We also find that it will have a substantial impact on the public finances of some Asian economies.