Economic Gerontology: Older People as Consumers and Workers

Abstract

This chapter discusses older people's roles in the economy. It considers them in their role as workers who sell their manpower in the labour market, and as consumers who purchase goods and services. In Europe, the situation of older workers is currently strongly debated, and several governments have implemented reforms trying to encourage people to work until a later age. Older Europeans' consumption patterns differ markedly from the ones of younger individuals, e.g. in that older people spend less money. Finally, this chapter discusses how the economic crisis might affect older Europeans. After reading this chapter, you should be able to:• Describe how consumption patterns change over the life course • Describe challenges that older workers encounter • Explain what policy-makers could do to support older workers • Discuss how the economic crisis could impact older Europeans What is Economic Gerontology?In this chapter, we would like to jointly treat economics and gerontology, seeing it as one sub-discipline in the framework of gerontology called economic gerontology. On the one hand, gerontology is the scientific study of the biological, psychological and social aspects of ageing-as it is stated by Quadagno (2011). On the other hand, economics is the social science that primarily studies choices and focuses on the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. From the perspective of economic gerontology, we will therefore be interested in the analysis of