CHANGING PENSION SYSTEMS IN UNITED STATES, EUROPE, ASIA, AND TRANSITION NATIONS

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This is a competing continuation application to extend Projects 2 and 3 of our original P01 proposal. It will use Luxembourg Income Study data to look at changes in the economic well-being of older populations relative to the nonaged in Canada, Australia, Central Europe, Russia, Western Europe, Scandinavia and Asia, comparing their situation with that in the United States. The project will use both cash and noncash income measures and will explore the role of health care expenses in measurement of economic well-being. The ability of social and private pension systems to produce economic security in old age will be explored. The project will study the economic well-being of persons age 65 and over, with particular emphasis on the status of older women. We will begin reassessing the economic well-being of older Americans by updating our original analyses for the 1980s through the l990s and adding to it in several ways. We will pay special attention to out-of-pocket health care costs and other forms of noncash income among the aged and we will make a number of comparisons in real purchasing power-adjusted dollar terms. Comparative static microsimulation is employed in a crossnational context to show how changes in income support and health care expenses can affect economic well-being. We will then explore the role of social retirement systems as compared to occupational pensions and savings in providing various components of economic security: poverty alleviation, income replacement, and income stability. Here we will place special emphasis on women's pension rights in both social and private retirement income systems. Finally, we will explore the differences in economic well- being among the aged in various types of extended living arrangements.