TY  - JOUR
AU  - Fuchs,Victor R.
TI  - The Financial Problems of the Elderly: A Holistic Approach
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8236
PY  - 2001
Y2  - April 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8236
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8236.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Victor R. Fuchs
796 Cedro Way
Stanford, CA  94305
Tel: 650/326-7639
Fax: 650/328-4163
E-Mail: vfuchs@stanford.edu
AB  - A holistic approach to the financial problems of the elderly focuses simultaneously on their expenditures that are self financed as well as those that are financed by transfers from the young (under age65).  It also focuses simultaneously on paying for health care and paying for other goods and services.  The income and health care expenditures not paid from personal income, provides a useful framework for empirical application of the holistic approach .  In 1997, approximately 35 percent of the elderly's full income was devoted to health care; 65 percent to other goods and services.  Approximately 56 percent of full income was provided by transfers from the young and 44 percent by the elderly themselves.  The paper shows how these percentages might change under alternative assumptions about the growth of health care relative to other goods and services and the effect of these changes on the need for more saving and more work prior to retirement.
ER  -