Generational effects of economic crises

Andrew Mason, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Naohiro Ogawa, Nihon University
Sang-Hyop Lee, University of Hawaii at Manoa
An-Chi Tung, Academia Sinica
Chong-Bum An, Sungkyunkwan University

The research addresses two related issues: the generational effects of economic crises and the capacity of age reallocation systems to spread economic/financial risks across generations. The research is based on the experience of three East Asian economies, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, which experienced economic crises or slowdowns during the 1990s. The analysis makes use of National Transfer Accounts (NTA), an international comparative aggregate data set which provides comprehensive estimates of intergenerational economic flows. The analysis will emphasize the effects of the crisis on consumption and key components of consumption, e.g., health and education, by age and by cohort. A second level of analysis will focus on the economic flows that fund consumption. One group of flows (labor and asset income) are directly affected by economic crises. A second group of flows (public and private transfers and dis-saving) are indirectly influenced and may serve to mitigate the effects of economic crises.