Chapter 7: Economics of Aging

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Across
  1. 3. Income levels which are defined by the government as poor.
  2. 6. An area of concern with Social Security that considers if the benefits provided are fairly distributed across persons and groups.
  3. 11. Refers to the positive impacts a nation might experience during or after the transition from a young society to an aging society
  4. 12. This is a hypothesis of saving and spending that argues that we defer some of our potential consumption into things like IRAs.
  5. 15. Refers to citizens who lack the means to support themselves through no fault of their own. This includes poor older adults and others without adequate financial resources if they had worked hard, tried to support themselves and save, not drunk or gambled away their money.
  6. 17. Things one owns with value that could be sold for significant sums of money (e.g., property, cars, houses, etc.)
  7. 18. The percentage of the population living below a minimum level of income as defined as necessary for survival.
  8. 20. These are public, private, or combined systems for supporting people who are older, poor, and/or ill. The idea is to provide income to persons in their later lives, after they are no longer involved in the labor force, typically by using public monies or funds generated through employment.
  9. 21. This focused investing some portion of contributions in the stock market. Moving toward this, Social Security would reduce both the social insurance and redistributive aspects of the program.
  10. 22. The federal government passed legislation called the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
  11. 23. The consequences of differences in life chances over time.
  12. 24. This was a 1930s’ social movement that advocated a $200 monthly pension to older people that must be spent by the recipients within 30 days in order to stimulate the economy. For families, the start of a public retirement program reduced their financial burden at a historically critical time -- the depths of the Great Depression -- because older adults at that time often relied on their kin for financial support.
Down
  1. 1. A concept that refers to sharing the risks of something (e.g., loss of income) across a group of people, whether informal (among friends) or formal (through an employer or a government). For example, the U.S. Social Security system is based on this concept.
  2. 2. Refers to all of the economic activity driven by the needs and preferences of the growing older population and views the aging population as a major driver of economic growth/ Measurement typically defines it as spending of those 50 (and sometimes 55) and older on goods and services, as well as the additional economic activity such spending generates.
  3. 4. Criteria for determining who receives benefits based on a threshold of resources that when individuals fall below that level, they are eligible to receive benefits.
  4. 5. The image used by the Social Security Administration in describing income maintenance that is used to conceptualize three sources of income (i.e., (1) retirement benefits from Social Secturity, (2) income from employer-based pensions, and (3) funds from personal savings or other assets).
  5. 7. Noncash benefits that contribute to economic well-being by reducing expenditures (e.g., Medicare as a publicly funded health benefit; subsidized housing; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) / “food stamps”)
  6. 8. Refers to how individuals who have early opportunities for success (i.e., better life chances) more often build on that success to perpetuate their advantages through adulthood and into later life; in contrast, those with disadvantages also carry those disadvantages forward through sequential life stages, often resulting in less economic security in later life. Exposure to more structural barriers likely results in increased vulnerability later in life.
  7. 9. An area of concern with Social Security that considers if the benefits provided are sufficient or able to meet the needs of recipients (i.e., Are social security benefits high enough?).
  8. 10. In this kind of pension system, the employer controls a worker’s pension. The employer contributes to and manages a common fund under rules defined by the ERISA. Under such systems, workers know exactly what their pension amount will be as they approach retirement and whether the amount will grow with inflation or remain fixed.
  9. 13. The process of returning a higher percentage of prior income (although not necessarily a higher dollar amount) to poorer individuals than to high-earning retirees, who are also likely to have other income sources.
  10. 14. A designated federal fund held in government securities, was created to hold funds not needed for current retirees.
  11. 16. This kind of pension system is commonly known as 401k plans. This is a kind of pension system where the worker, the employer, or both contribute to a fund that is held by an independent financial entity; the money in this fund belongs to the worker immediately, although rules limit whether and when it may be used before retirement age. Th e amount contributed influences a retiree’s eventual benefit amount, as does the way the funds are invested. Benefits at retirement are not preset but instead depend on the trends in the stock and bond markets where the employee invests, especially when close to retirement.
  12. 19. Refers to systems that base eligibility (or the criteria for access or to be a beneficiary) for benefits on age or years of employment.