Economic Resources of the Elderly

We will update and revise a large-scale Macroeconomic-Demographic Model of the U.S.Retirement Income System and Health Care Expenditures developed for NIA. The model projects thepopulation and simulates the behavior of the labor force and the growth of the economy, the operationsof the retirement income systems and health care expenditures, focusing on the effects of demographicand economic change. The model depicts the behavior and economic conditions of a large number ofdemographic groups and investigates the effects of population aging on the economy and on retirementincome systems and health care expenditures. It projects the economic resources and health care costsof the elderly. Phase I of the project investigates the economic resources of the elderly by analyzing twomicro-databases providing extensive information on the income and assets of households, the Surveyof Consumer Finances (SCF) and the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS). These databases will beanalyzed to study trends in the assets of the elderly and the interactions among retirement saving andlabor market experience. A simple micro-simulation model will be developed to age the SCF data topermit comparison of those data with the HRS data. To adjust the SCF data a model of household assetaccumulation will be developed and integrated with the Macroeconomic-Demographic Model. The newmodelling system and databases will provide the basis for policy research and analysis and consultingapplications for public and private sector organizations.