Description: Abstract: The percentage of the population who are obese has grown dramatically worldwide over the last several decades, although stabilizing recently in the United States. Studies have found the effects on mortality to be inconsistent and controversial because of methodological differences and the complexity of the relationship between obesity and mortality. This paper discusses this relationship and sheds light on the likely effects of this epidemic. Issues associated with the so-called obesity-mortality paradox, where mortality experience is lower for those individuals who are overweight and in some who are obese compared with the mortality of those in the normal weight category, are examined. Although certain recently reported studies of the relationship between mortality and obesity indicate that obesity is related to a reduced percent of additional mortality, this may in part be due to the shorter average time that those currently obese have been exposed to their condition. Nevertheless, the amount of health care costs and rates of disability associated with being obese are significant, contributing to the increase in overall health care costs as they become more numerous and age. Although obesity is being addressed with a great deal of activity and publicity, they will continue to prove challenging for individuals and society to manage and overcome.

Description: This paper proposes a new method to price the longevity risk premia in order to tackle the pricing obstacle. Based on the equivalent utility pricing principle, our method obtains the minimum risk premium required by the longevity insurance seller and the maximum acceptable risk premium by the longevity insurance buyer.

Description: We develop a model based on causal mortality in order to better understand inequalities in life expectancy across socioeconomic circumstances.

Description: In the face of profound, worldwide changes in demographic, family, and lifestyle patterns, this paper introduces a dynamic social security system deemed most suitable for accommodating these changes.

Description: This paper examines the current presence of more females in the work force, and the Social Security/retirement issues that are raised by this trend. From Retirement Implications of Demographic and Family Change Symposium Monograph, M-RS02-2.

Description: Paper estimates the burden of chronic disability on the U.S. elderly population, using sex-specific measures of long-term care LTC service use, intensity and costs.

Description: This paper examines how income sources change when married women in Britain, the U.S., and Germany are widowed, and it draws inferences about the income consequences of specific retirement and survivorship provisions. .

Description: The purpose of this paper is to identify the changes in the structure and composition of families and to discuss the implications of those changes for Social Security reform.

Description: A multiway typology of measures of aging, longevity and superlongevity is presented, with measures classified as measures of aging and longevity, direct and indirect measures of aging and longevity, and measures based on population data, death statistics and life table functions.

Description: We develop a model based on causal mortality in order to better understand inequalities in life expectancy across socioeconomic circumstances.