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The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries are facing unprecedented challenges related to climate change and population aging. The purpose of the analysis is to explore the relationship between population aging and environmental degradation, accounting for human capital, using a sample of 19 OECD countries over the period 1980–2019.

On the empirical methodology, the analysis uses panel estimators with heterogenous coefficients and an error structure that takes into consideration cross-country heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence for a panel of 19 OECD countries over the period 1980–2019. To examine the relationship between population aging and environmental degradation, the authors employ two alternative measures of environmental degradation that is energy consumption and CO2 emissions in metric tons per capita. Concerning the regressors, the authors account for two alternative aging indicators, namely the elderly population and the old-age dependency ratios to confirm robustness.

The analysis provides evidence that population aging and human capital development (IHC) lead to lower energy consumption in the OECD sample. Overall, the growing number of elderly people in the OECD seems to act as a mitigating factor for energy consumption. The authors view these results as conveying the message that the evolution of population aging along with channeling government expenditures towards human capital enhancement are important drivers of curbing energy consumption and ensuring environmental sustainability. The authors' research is of great significance for environmental policymakers by illuminating the favorable energy consumption patterns that population aging brings to advanced economies.

The main limitation of this study concerns data availability. Future research, and subject to greater data availability in the future, could dig deeper into understanding the dynamics of this complex nexus by incorporating additional control variables. Similarly, the authors focus on aggregate renewable energy consumption, and the authors do not explicitly model the sources of renewable energy (wind, hydropower, solar power, solid biofuels and other). Additional analysis of the breakdown of renewable energy sources would be insightful – subject to data availability – especially for meeting the recently agreed new target of 42.5% for European Union (EU) countries by 2030. A deep transformation of the European energy system is needed for the EU to meet the target. Finally, extending the model to include a range of non-OECD countries that are also experiencing demographic transformations is a promising avenue for future research.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effects of population aging and human capital on environmental degradation using a broad set of OECD countries and advanced spectrum estimation methods. Given cross-sectional dependencies and cross-country heterogeneity, the authors' empirical results underline the importance of cross-OECD policy spillovers and knowledge diffusions across the OECD countries. The new “energy culture” calls for concerted policy action even in an aging era.

Driven by the aim to increase the participation of older people in the labour force and to extend people's working lives, the Swedish Parliament passed a bill in 1998 to increase the pension eligibility age from 60 to 61 years and establish a notional defined-contribution (NDC) plan. In this article, the authors investigate the impacts towards the prolongation of working lives expected from such an intervention.

The authors apply a multinomial probabilistic model based on Swedish registry data on the birth cohorts 1937–1938 (n = 102,826) and observe differences in exit behaviour between eligible and non-eligible individuals.

The authors find that the cohorts eligible to the pension reform exit the labour market at a later age compared to non-eligible cohorts at the 61-years cut-off. The authors also find that the effect persists in the long term. Furthermore, the authors find that both men and women are equally struck by the reform.

While there exist many descriptive reports and theoretical analyses on the costs and benefits of pension reforms, this study is the first one to empirically analyse the effect of the first European NDC pay-as-you go pension plan on the potential exclusion of old-aged workers.

This paper aims to investigate the increasing trend of multigenerational co-living in the USA and to research the socioeconomic and cultural determinants of such decision.

This study uses the 2017 American Housing Survey data to run descriptive and regression analysis.

The authors find household income appears consistently to be the most significant factor determining multigenerational co-residence decision across all household compositions. Latino households are most likely to co-reside with multiple generations, followed by Asian and African American households. Immigrants tend to live in multigenerational co-residential housing units with smaller sizes and more impoverished neighborhoods, but show greater flexibility in making residential arrangements once they gain better education. In addition, older householders or female householders are significantly more likely to co-reside with multiple generations. Living in metropolitan areas has no impact on co-residence choice, although some evidence suggests that multigenerational co-residential families tend to live in inferior neighborhoods.

This study provides updated evidence on multigenerational co-residence choice in the contemporary United States. The findings provide evidence on how households make residential choices in response to financial hardships and contribute to the theoretical understanding of the variations of such decisions among immigrants and different ethnic and aging groups.

This study on multigenerational co-residence choice imposes important practical implications. The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic creates ideal research setting to study how households cope with the tremendous uncertainties in the job markets and financial markets. Although multigenerational co-living may work well for some households with lower or moderate-income for financial reasons, it is not an attractive option for every family.

Sharing a home with multiple generations can be challenging. Policymakers should design policies and programs to provide households with guidance on how to live peacefully in multigenerational settings and make multigenerational co-living an appealing and cost-effective housing option for American families of all means.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing new evidence on the determinants of multigenerational co-residence decision. This study’s findings are fundamental to guide policymakers in carrying out policies and programs aimed at providing a more appealing and cost-effective housing arrangement for American families. The evidence on the senior and minority subsamples are especially meaningful as the vast majority of the baby boom generation in the USA is aging and substantial growth is expected in multigenerational households over the next several decades. Understanding the increasing burden of old-age depression in aging societies will help policymakers prioritize public resources in city planning to address the needs of this rapidly growing population.