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NEW - Added December 15, 2009
» Demographic Change and the Acceptance of Population-Related Policies:
A Comparison of 13 European Countries ![[pdf]](../img/icon_pdf.gif){kind=icon}
By Harald Wilkoszewski and Elena Muth
www.demogr.mpg.de • 2009
Demographic change is increasingly putting pressure on political systems throughout Europe: budget constraints and rising numbers of old age beneficiaries tighten allocation problems between generations in these countries. With population ageing continuing in the decades to come (and in some countries, at an accelerated rate) not just relations between generations might be affected, but also the acceptance of a range of population-related policies.
Largely based on intra-family relations and transfers, existing research has mostly come to the optimistic conclusion that ties within the family remain strong, and upward as well as downward transfers between parents and children are often generous. Some authors further conclude that these strong family relationships might help the state to tackle future policy challenges related to population ageing, e.g., in the care sector.
However, in many European countries there are growing numbers not only of the elderly, but also of people who remain childless, and, successively, grandchildless over their whole life course. Thus, the implementation of policies solely relying on the traditional family model might become more difficult in the future. Very few studies have looked at whether or not preferences toward policies allocating transfers between young and old differ by age.
Read more: http://www.demogr.mpg.de/papers/working/wp-2009-035.pdf
Contact: Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Laboratory of Population and Policy, Germany
London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Social Policy, UK
E-mail: wilkoszewski@demogr.mpg.de, H.Wilkoszewski@lse.ac.uk