Commissioned by: European Commission-Framework Programme
Study by: Austrian Institute of Economic Research – University of Barcelona
SUSTAINWELL addresses the long-term socio-economic impact of population ageing on European society. The aims of this project
will be to identify: first, opportunities arising from longer and healthy life expectancy and in general from the silver economy;
second, resilient responses from individuals and households (in market and non-market outcomes) and from other actors in society
facing the challenges posed by ageing; third, the impact of ageing on inequality (both within and between generations), knowing
that social cohesion is crucial to face the ageing challenge; fourth, gender and lifecycle balanced policies helping the sandwich-generation
to sustain baby-boomers entering retirement, without decreasing fertility nor investment in education. Particular attention
will be devoted to the role of job design to foster intergenerational complementarities in the labour market. To better understand
the benefits of living longer, SUSTAINWELL will take a holistic perspective by: investigating the behavioural reactions in
key lifetime decisions along the lifecycle (education, skills, fertility, work effort, home production, savings and retirement)
and the decision process itself leading to prosocial behaviour; and accounting for the three ways to provide welbeing along
the lifecycle (market, family and welfare state). Both dimensions will be analysed by extending the National Transfer Accounts
method (using comparable EU datasets) to be incorporated as inputs in a dynamic microsimulation comparative model quantifying
the future of ageing societies. The project will take a new multidisciplinary approach in different basic (Neuroscience) and
social sciences (Economics, Demographics, Sociology and Political Science). The results of the project will be pursued in
permanent contact with stakeholders, to deliver knowledge and evidence-based policy measures by applying a participatory design
and co-creation activities.
Study by: Austrian Institute of Economic Research – University of Barcelona – Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona – University of Essex – University of Ottawa
Economic development in parallel to demographic changes over the past decades have altered family structures and the way care
is given and received along the lifecycle. This long-running trend has been recently affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially
the tragic rates of mortality in too many institutional care settings for the elderly, and the widespread closures of schools.
These dramatic changes make more evident how the market economy relies on non-market economic activities to provide welfare
in general and care to dependent children and elders. At the same time, it has highlighted just how much the informal care
economy relates to inequality in general and exposes the gender gap.
Ziel ist es, ein für Zwecke einer regionalisierten Bevölkerungsprognose operativ einsetzbares Mikrosimulationsmodell mit den
Merkmalen Alter, Geschlecht, Region sowie zumindest zwei weiteren Personenmerkmalen zu entwickeln. Die technische Unterstützung
umfasst: (1) Beratung zu Modellarchitektur, Design sowie Software-Lösungen, (2) Entwicklung von Modell-Prototypen, (3) Schulung,
(4) Unterstützung bei Code-Entwicklung, statistischer Modellierung, Parametrisierung, Validierung und Debugging, (5) Unterstützung
in der Entwicklung von Dokumentationen und (6) Unterstützung in der Entwicklung von Szenarien und Aufbereitung von Simulationsergebnissen.
