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Economic impacts of ageing: an inter‐industry approach

Paula C. Albuquerque (ISEG, School of Economics and Management – UTL, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal and SOCIUS, Research Unit on Economic Sociology and Organizations, Lisboa, Portugal)
João C. Lopes (ISEG, School of Economics and Management – UTL, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal and UECE, Research Unit on Complexity and Economics, Lisboa, Portugal)

International Journal of Social Economics

ISSN: 0306-8293

Article publication date: 19 October 2010

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the evolution of consumption patterns associated with ageing on the relative importance of industries in Portugal, quantifying the changes in production, value added, imported intermediate inputs and employment.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses data from the Family Spending Survey to disaggregate the household column of the Portuguese input‐output table in different age groups, projecting their consumption, using the latest demographic projections made by Statistics Portugal (INE).

Findings

The study identifies the industries that are likely to be stimulated by the ageing of the Portuguese populations, as well as the industries that will most likely become disadvantaged by the process.

Social implications

The task of identification of growing and declining industries due to ageing is important to help the design of employment, environmental and social policies.

Originality/value

The contemporary demographic trends in Western societies have added to the importance of studying the economic and social consequences of ageing. The main issues have been the labour market effects, the sustainability of social security systems and long‐term care. In this paper, we address a different research topic, quantifying the sectoral impact of the evolution of consumption patterns associated with ageing. This can be useful in addressing the structural challenges of the rapid ageing of the population, common to most of the developed economies.

Keywords

Citation

Albuquerque, P.C. and Lopes, J.C. (2010), "Economic impacts of ageing: an inter‐industry approach", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 37 No. 12, pp. 970-986. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068291011083035

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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