---

Ageing is a core issue for governments and demographers, presenting enormous and growing challenges. This book examines some of the central issues arising from older populations, such as the design of viable pension systems and social expenditure models.

---

This book touches upon a few of the major challenges that all modern societies will have to face in the near future: how to set up a resilient pay-as-you-go pension system; whether the current balance between expenses and revenues in social expenditure is viable in the future, and, if not, what changes need to be introduced; whether the relative well-being of the current and future cohorts of the old will be preserved, and how their standards of living compare to those experienced by the old in the recent past.

At the micro level, the exchanges between generations are presented and discussed in detail: how they have evolved in the recent past in terms of time, money, co-residence and proximity, and what will likely happen next. The geographical scope is on the developed countries, plus South Korea.

A rich documentation of tables and graphs supports the scientific analyses and the policy implications in each of the nine chapters of this book, where demography, sociology, and economics intersect fruitfully, both at the macro and at the micro level.

---

Preface.- Introduction.- Section 1 - Demographic Changes and Transfer Systems, between Equity and Sustainability.- Introduction to section 1.- 1. Gustavo DE SANTIS: The Demographic Phases and the Almost Ideal Pension System (AIPS) .- 2. Fernando GIL-ALONSO : Ageing and Policies: Pension Systems Under Pressure .- 3. Luc GODBOUT, Suzie ST-CERNY, Pier-André BOUCHARD ST-AMANT and Pierre FORTIN: Quebec´s Public Finances between Demographic Changes and Fiscal Sustainability .- SECTION 2 - Economic Security in Old Age.- Introduction to section 2.- 4. Jacques LEGARE and Amélie COSSETTE: Comparing the economic well-being of baby-boomers and their parents in Quebec and Ontario .- 5. Jinkook LEE and Drystan PHILLIPS: Income and Poverty among Older Koreans: Relative Contributions of and Relationship between Public and Family Transfers .- 6. Taizo MOTONISHI: Heterogeneous Elderly Parents and Intergenerational Transfers in Japan .- SECTION 3 - Time is on Whose Side? Mutual Support and Exchanges Between Generations.- Introduction to section 3.- 7. Janice A. KEEFE, Jacques LEGARE, Patrick CHARBONNEAU and Yann DÉCARIE: Intergenerational Support to Older Canadians by Their Adult Children: Implications for the Future .- 8. Valeria BORDONE : Social Norms and Intergenerational Relationships .- 9. Maria Letizia TANTURRI : How Much Does a Child Cost Its Parents in Terms of Time in an Aged Society? An Estimate for Italy with Time-Use Survey Data.

---