First webcast: The Conference Board, 14/05/2013

This webcast examines the effects of global demographic change on the economic and social models of ageing Western nations, and more youthful emerging and developing countries. Based on the book The Age of Ageing, which I wrote in 2008, I consider how and why ageing societies have to redraw the lines between the entitlement rights and obligations of citizens and the State. And then I look at the emerging and developing world, where most countries won’t experience rapid ageing for many years, but where the speed of ageing is unprecedented. If they can’t harvest their so-called ‘demographic dividend’ in the interim, their economic prospects will not match up to the contemporary hyperbole. Finally, I look at the huge contrast between China that has reaped its dividend and the new problems arising there, and India, which may not, and what the implications might be…..more