The Australia-China Population Ageing Hub at CEPAR, in collaboration with the School of Entrepreneurship and Management at ShanghaiTech University and the Employment and Social Security Research Center at Fudan University, hosted its 4th Annual Workshop on Population Ageing and the Chinese Economy on 27-28 June 2018 in Shanghai. It was the first time that the conference was held in China.
Attracting over 80 participants, the workshop explored institutional and policy innovations to address population ageing, including social security policies, labour market policies and wealth management, among others, with the aim of strengthening academic and policy links.
The conference program featured over 20 talks from international experts, economists, and government officials, focusing on the topics of pension system reform and its impact, flexible retirement systems and policies to improve the labor force participation of elder workers, technological revolution, income inequality and income distribution, elderly healthcare reform, long-term care needs, service delivery, long-term care insurance, and impact of wealth management system on pension burden.
CEPAR Partner Investigator Olivia S. Mitchell, a distinguished professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, spoke on the topic of financial innovation and financial behavior, based on her studies on the effect of a lump sum incentive for delaying social security claim age which could also extend people's working lives, raise social security tax revenue and potentially enhance the system solvency.
The conference provided a platform for disccussion and dialogue about the current situation of population ageing, both in China and abroad, and highlighted the significance of China's burgeoning long-term care industry and long-term care insurance system, and the need for a social security reform.