Population Aging - 9780821384879

This timely book describes the issues that compel us to craft a new social agenda for Latin America, which now needs to incorporate the challenges of the growing aging population. The region has improved the efficiency of its social policies, but we have a long road ahead and we need to continue innovating. Governments and the private sector must learn to balance the demands posed by a rapidly growing population of seniors while continuing to invest in the education of our youth and the needs of the poor. This book should be of interest to anyone with a serious interest in Latin America and to everyone working to improve the future of the region. ---Alejandro Toledo Former President of Peru

This valuable book describes how population aging in Latin America and the Caribbean will put pressure on public and private support networks. Just as important, it explains how appropriate policy responses, already enacted in some countries, can moderate these consequences.---Ronald Lee Chair, Center on the Economics and Demography of Aging, Berkeley

Today, when we think of Latin America, we don't think of age. But, by the time our children retire, they will be living in a region where the old will be more numerous than the young. This will change our societies in a fundamental way: our educational priorities, labor-force composition, productive capacity, health care needs, pension systems, fiscal choices, cultural values, and political preferences will all be different. This book is a daring, first peek into that future. It is a technically rigorous, politically savvy, and strategically path-breaking analysis of how aging will alter the development landscape of the region. Problems, costs, benefits, options, and tradeoffs are explored, and a general message of opportunity is threaded throughout.---Marcelo Glugale Director, Poverty and Economic Management in Latin America, World Bank