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Ageing, health and disability – An economic perspective

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From Grey to Silver

Abstract

It has been established that morbidity increases with age, which leads to a reduction in labour productivity and an increase in care costs. However, in the health economic literature, it is sometimes argued that an individual’s age is not a good predictor of morbidity and care costs once ‘time to death’ is taken into account. In other words, age itself is not significant because the period in which older people need help is simply postponed when life expectancy increases.

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Karlsson, M., Klohn, F. (2011). Ageing, health and disability – An economic perspective. In: Boppel, M., Boehm, S., Kunisch, S. (eds) From Grey to Silver. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15594-9_5

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