This chapter examines how Taiwanese elders support themselves and are supported by the productive members of the society. Given that the living arrangement of the elderly is usually a significant determinant of their economic welfare, we examine how the composition of income sources of the elders varies by household type. Using the NTA data for 1998, we found that Taiwanese elders residing with their children relied primarily upon intrafamilial transfers, elders living with spouses or grandchildren only, relied on their own resources, and the elders living alone relied heavily on government support. The remainder of the chapter is organized as follows. First it looks into the issue of living arrangements of the elderly and their economic security. Next it reviews Taiwan's rapid economic growth and demographic transition in recent decades, and examines the changing pattern of living arrangement and economic support for the elderly. Then it discusses the data and the methodology used in the analysis. The following section studies how elderly consumption is financed in various living arrangements, also reporting results Taiwan text (SEW edit 2) 2 under alternative assumptions. The last section summarizes the findings and suggests some topics for future research. Living arrangements and economic support for the elderly The living arrangement of the elderly is usually a significant determinant of their economic security and welfare. The issue is critical for poor elders in the developing world, where formal welfare systems are less extensive than in more developed countries. It is also of major concern for any economy undergoing rapid dissolution of traditional co-residence patterns. Although co-residence benefits the younger as well as the older generation, in many societies living together with adult children has been "a fundamental means of ensuring that the day-today needs of the older population would be met" (UN Population Division 2005, p.75). In Taiwan the proportion of elders (persons aged 65 or older) co-residing with their offspring dropped from 70.2 to 60.4 percent between 1986 and 2005, while the ratio of elders relying on children as their main income source plunged from 65.8 to 46.5 percent, according to the Elderly Condition Survey conducted by the Ministry of Interior. The elderly rely on three major sources to finance their consumption: personal resources (labor income, asset income, and past savings), private transfers, and public transfers. As financial support from adult children has become less reliable as the major source of income, the elderly in Taiwan have gradually shifted toward public or personal sources-from 1.2 to 16.0 percent for public sources, and from 30.9 to 40.8 percent for personal sources, between 1986 and 2005-to fund their consumption (MOI 2005). A vast literature on the theory of co-residence examines the motivation, benefits and costs, and underlying constraints and preferences of individuals, families, and societies with various living arrangements (Kinsella 1990). Old-age s...

No abstract

No abstract

In many countries, deaths from COVID-19 were highly concentrated among care home residents during the initial wave of the pandemic. Care home residents may have faced higher risks of exposure and infection than the general population of older people. Once infected, residents may have been more likely to succumb to this disease as they were both older and frailer than the general population of older people. This study presents a quantified assessment of these factors in Belgium and in England and Wales. In doing so, this paper applies the Das Gupta decomposition method to explain the contributions of these three factors to the observed differences in mortality rates from COVID-19 between older people residing in care homes and older people living at home. According to these estimates, older people residing in care homes were 36 times more likely to die in Belgium and were 23 times more likely to die in England and Wales from COVID-19 than older people living at home during the initial wave of the pandemic. Decomposition of the differences in the mortality rates of these populations in Belgium and in England and Wales showed that the two key determinants were the greater underlying frailty of older people in care homes (accounting for 46% of the differences in Belgium and 66% of the differences in England and Wales) and the higher infection prevalence of older people in care homes (accounting for 40% of the differences in Belgium and 26% of the differences in England and Wales).