Contributions of Economists and Economics to Study of
Contributions of Economists and Economics to Study of Aging Robert A. Moffitt Johns Hopkins University May 18, 2011
Sponsorship n n n This meeting: sponsored by the American Economic Association, Committee on Government Relations Dan Newlon: DC Director Two of us are members (me, Skinner) Purpose: to review samples of research conducted by economists on aging and to emphasize the importance of NIA support to the many major contributions of economics Me: I am an observer, not a participant
Economics of Aging is now a major subfield within economics n Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of senior as well as junior researchers and new Ph. D. dissertations in the area n Many different topics (see below), aided by new data n BSR support has been a major contributor to this development n
Economics Contributions I. III. IV. V. VI. Specific research areas and topics An organizing framework Careful attention to causality Policy focus Data Collection Exploration of new areas: behavioral economics, cognition, psychology, neuroeconomics, biomarkers/genomics
I. Specific Research Areas Health economics: functioning of the health care system, design and effects of health insurance and financing, comparative effectiveness, technology diffusion, cost analysis and projections n Retirement economics: causes and effects; health-employment nexus and relationship; retirement date, savings, wealth accumulation and assets n Population Aging (Ron Lee) n
II. Organizing Framework Economics has a very general model of behavior that allows economic considerations, health factors, and psychology into a coherent whole with explicit causal directions n The model does not require “rational man” n Is an integrative model n Other approaches and disciplines do not have the same comprehensiveness n
III. Careful Attention to Causality While there are many questions that can, and have been, tested with randomized trials (Newhouse: Rand Health Insurance Experiment; default experiments), most economics research must be observational n Economists have paid more attention to careful modeling of causality than any other observational discipline (Ex: Cutler work on effectiveness of heart attack revascularization; distance to hospital) n
IV. Policy Focus Much if not most economics has a direct policy focus n Huge literature on the effect of the Social Security retirement program n Similarly large literatures on the effects of Medicare (incl. Part D) Medicaid on various outcomes, including health outcomes (not just retirement); SSDI as well (Autor-Duggan) n Health care reform, health insurance reform: major literatures n
V. Leaders in Major Data Collection Efforts HRS the leading example n Hugely influential study of retirement but also health assessments, disability; now biomeasures and genomics n Extended to large number of other countries n PSID supplements on health status, disability; linkages to Medicare claims data and cause-of-death data n
VI. Openness to Exploration of New Approaches Behavioral economics; study of cognition; neuroeconomics; incorporation of other aspects of psychology; subjective wellbeing n But, in every case, put into the economists’ organizing framework, the “model” which allows the complex relationships to be given coherence n
n Now on to examples
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