There is widespread acceptance that much of the developed world faces a potential pensions and welfare crisis as a result of declining birth rates and an ageing population. However, there is considerable uncertainty about the specifics of demographic forecasting and this has significant implications for public finances. Uncertain Demographics and Fiscal Sustainability addresses the economic consequences of uncertainty and, with particular reference to European economies, explores the impact of demographic risks on public finances, including pension systems, health care and old-age care...

Population aging raises a number of issues regarding the optimality of public debt policy and the systems of public pension provisions that are in use in developed countries. The studies in this book address these questions using computable general equilibrium models. They give illuminating insights and new empirical estimates of future prospects of pay-as-you-go pension schemes in the "big seven" OECD countries, the possible distortions introduced by the pension systems in four large European economies, the effects of lifetime uncertainty in analyzing a potential reform of the Dutch pension...

There is widespread acceptance that much of the developed world faces a potential pensions and welfare crisis as a result of declining birth rates and an ageing population. However, there is considerable uncertainty about the specifics of demographic forecasting and this has significant implications for public finances. Uncertain Demographics and Fiscal Sustainability addresses the economic consequences of uncertainty and, with particular reference to European economies, explores the impact of demographic risks on public finances, including pension systems, health care and old-age care...