TY - JOUR AU - Mason, Andrew AU - Lee, Ronald AU - Tung, An-Chi AU - Lai, Mun-Sim AU - Miller, Tim TI - Population Aging and Intergenerational Transfers: Introducing Age into National Accounts JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 12770 PY - 2006 Y2 - December 2006 DO - 10.3386/w12770 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12770 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12770.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Andrew Mason Department of Economics University of Hawaii at Manoa 2424 Maile Way Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: 808-944-7455 Fax: 808-944-7490 E-Mail: amason@hawaii.edu Ronald Lee Departments of Demography and Economics University of California, Berkeley 2232 Piedmont Avenue Berkeley, CA 94720 Tel: 510/642-4535 Fax: 510/643-8558 E-Mail: rlee@demog.berkeley.edu An-Chi Tung Institue of Economics, Academia Sinica Taipei, Taiwan E-Mail: actung@econ.sinica.edu.tw Mun-Sim Lai Department of Applied Economics California State University at Bakersfield 9001 Stockdale Hwy. Bakersfield, CA 93311 E-Mail: munl@hawaii.edu Timothy Miller E-Mail: tmiller@demog.berkeley.edu M1 - published as Andrew Mason, Ronald Lee, An-Chi Tung, Mun-Sim Lai, Tim Miller. "Population Aging and Intergenerational Transfers: Introducing Age into National Accounts," in David A. Wise, editor, "Developments in the Economics of Aging" University of Chicago Press (2009) AB - In all societies intergenerational transfers are large and have an important influence on inequality and growth. The development of each generation of youth depends on the resources that it receives from productive members of society for health, education, and sustenance. The well-being of the elderly depends on familial support and a variety of social programs. The National Transfer Accounts (NTA) system provides a comprehensive approach to measuring all reallocations of income across age and time at the aggregate level. It encompasses reallocations achieved through capital accumulation and transfers, distinguishing those mediated by public institutions from those relying on private institutions. This paper introduces the methodology and presents preliminary results emphasizing economic support systems in Taiwan and the United States. As the two economies differ in their demographic configuration, their level of development, and their old-age support systems, comparing them will shed light on the economic implications of population aging under alternative institutional arrangements. ER -