Decreasing fertility, aging populations, and the lifecycle deficit: The case of South Korea (Hyun Kyung Kim)
This research examines population-development linkages in South Korea using the NTA framework to estimate age profiles of labor income and consumption over the lifecycle. An important feature of the NTA is the central role played by intergenerational transfer of resources in explaining the link between population and development. This research quantifies inter-age monetary flows of labor income and consumption and subsequent economic lifecycle deficits based on the NTA framework using South Korean data for the years 2009 to 2010. The age profile of labor income is found to be an inverse U-shape curve, which starts from age 17, gradually increases with age, reaches a peak in the early thirties, and thereafter declines with age till the age of 84. The age profile of consumption shows rising levels of consumption when entering school and then remains nearly flat during the economically active period and into old age. Public consumption tends to be higher for children and the elderly than for the working-age population.