Since 1993, Taiwan started to experience its population aging as other developed countries. After the portion of the aged (65 or elder) passed 7% of its population in 1993 to make it an aging society, it quickly rose to 10.2% in 2008, and was expected to pass 14% in 2017, to make Taiwan an aged country. The changing demographic trend had major implications that may reshape our everyday lives, including the way we work, intergenerational relationships, family and social networks, political and social participation as well as the demand for medical, health and social services. How societies should appropriately deal with problems arising from population aging is a desperate public issue and an important research topic for social science studies in the 21st century. In light of this significant challenge, the faculty in the Department of Economics at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) established the Aging Economy Research Center (AERC) in 2009 to explore the relevant issues.
Endeavoring to promote the research on population aging, AERC aims at helping researchers to exploit the potential of a broad range of datasets, to undertake the research into the impact of aging at either the global, societal or individual level, and to disseminate these findings via education, conferences and publications. Currently its primary functions are:
To promote the research and education of economic issues regarding the population aging.
To serve as a platform where the faculty may collaborate integrate their expertise and knowledge toward the
economic research of aging and as a integrated window through which they seek funds and resources.
To collect and to maintain datasets related to the research of population aging.
To promote the joint research of the members and foreign scholars.
Particularly we are focused on addressing the issues of aging regarding
Human capital formation and labor market development;
Implications of population aging on economic growth;
Saving, income inequality and financial transfer across generations;
Saving, financial market and capital market in aging economy;
Pension and social welfare provision, government deficits and fiscal sustainability in aging economy;
Economic analysis of medical insurance and healthcare in aging society;
The development of new industries for aging economy;
Political economy of aging society.
In order to provide exhaustive suggestions to policies for battling the imminent challenges of aging, AERC currently weighs heavier at the economic research of population aging on labor markets, financial market, social security and pension reform, medical insurance, and healthcare of the elderly. However, the center also aims to attract and invite faculties from schools of management, medical science and other departments at NCKU to build more solid and multidisciplinary approaches. In addition to instruct an undergraduate class by all the member faculty, and to hold its first international conference, the center also expect to host future conferences on population aging. |
