The population base in both the United States and Japan is growing older
and, as those populations age, they provoke heretofore unexamined
economic consequences. This cutting-edge, comparative volume, the third
in the joint series offered by the National Bureau of Economic Research
and the Japan Center for Economic Research, explores those consequences,
drawing specific attention to four key areas: incentives for early
retirement; savings, wealth, and asset allocation over the life cycle;
health care and health care reform; and population projections.
Given the undeniable global importance of the Japanese and U.S.
economies, these innovative essays shed welcome new light on the complex
correlations between aging and economic behavior. This insightful work
not only deepens our understanding of the Japanese and American economic
landscapes but, through careful examination of the comparative social
and economic data, clarifies the complex relation between aging
societies, public policies, and economic outcomes.