Martin Wolf speaks to Andrew J Scott: Can societies age gracefully?

Increasingly elderly populations seen in countries such as Japan and Italy are set to become the norm everywhere in the coming decades. But will a more senior demographic make the cost of state pensions and healthcare unaffordable? And will it kill economic growth? Not necessarily so, according to today’s guest, Andrew J Scott, director of economics at the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford. He believes that the rapidly growing cohort of over-65s is something to celebrate. But he also warns that we need to radically rethink many of the policies that delivered this widespread longevity in the first place.

Martin Wolf is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. You can find his column here

Subscribe to The Economics Show on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.