Rethinking Ageing: Why Policymakers Should Look Beyond Pensions

Political deadlock over the retirement age in France, empty houses in Japan, the rise of populism across Europe, dog strollers outselling baby prams in South Korea. These are all visible consequences of demographic crisis.

The economic dangers of an ageing society are well-known. As young people have fewer children, the age pyramid becomes top-heavy. A dwindling workforce cannot support the public pensions of those who have retired. Coupled with the strain on individual and corporate taxpayers to fund an increasingly burdened healthcare system, population ageing leads nations down an unsustainable path. Policymakers have long been aware of these risks, enacting pronatalist policies to encourage population growth, relaxing immigration laws to let more people in to their country or raising the retirement age.

However, the larger societal implications of ageing have rarely been studied. How does an ageing population change the cultural norms of a society? And how can this be used to create informed and beneficial policies? Researchers from the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Luxembourg looked at the effects of ageing on society through a lens of cultural economics. Funded through an FNR CORE Grant, the CULTUREAGEING project officially wrapped up in late 2025 with some interesting conclusions.

Can population ageing change cultural norms?

Over the course of the project, researchers developed theoretical models and conducted empirical analyses to explore how ageing effects key social outcomes in areas of ecology, politics, and women in the labour market. The economists were able to adjust for factors such as economic performance, individual age, and education level in the data sets in order to isolate population ageing as the driver of cultural change.

Interestingly, the results often show a distinct difference between the individual and society. This means that it is not possible to simply ‘scale up’ individual opinions to determine how society at large feels. In many cases, researchers find that it is the very fact that a society is ageing which drives change in thinking and not necessarily the aggregate of the individual opinions of older citizens. To determine the relative ‘age’ of a population, researchers calculate the old-age dependency ratio (OADR) in a given population. The OADR refers to the ratio of individuals 65 and older to those of working age, 20 to 64 years of age.

A sharp focus on politics, gender and environment

When researchers studied the rise of populism in politics in ageing societies, they found that a society with a high old-age dependency ratio, such as Italy or Germany can begin to exhibit signs of populism such as declining electoral turnout, lower trust in political institutions and increased anti-immigrant sentiments. This cultural shift occurred in younger people as well as older people, and could reflect the economic insecurity, cultural backlash or shifting societal priorities in ageing populations.  

In the case of their research into female participation in the labour market, researchers found that as a society ages (as the OADR increases), attitudes became more positive towards women working outside of the home, but only up to a certain point. When a society is in the advanced stages of ageing, such as Italy, the conservative views associated with older populations begin to dominate. This reminds us that the effects of population ageing are not necessarily linear and may be subject to threshold effects.  

Looking at how population ageing affects environmental outcomes, researchers discovered that while older individuals can potentially place greater importance on environmental issues than younger ones, this concern does not necessarily translate into higher participation in pro-environmental activities such as recycling. In fact, a youthful society grown-up with the habit of recycling may have a higher participation rate, while an ageing society may experience what economists refer to as “habit inertia”, the difficulty of changing long-established behaviours.

Helping society face population ageing

Researchers recommend focusing less on strictly economy-based policies such as increasing the retirement age or pension reform, and more on holistic policies. Holistic policies affect society at large, and have the ability to mitigate the adverse effects of population ageing by addressing underlying societal and cultural challenges, like encouraging higher female workforce participation or pushing back against negative attitudes towards immigrants. In short, a more diverse workforce is a more sustainable workforce.

Population ageing is a slow-moving but profound societal trend. It has the potential to reshape, erode, or induce entirely new dynamics within our societies – often in unexpected ways. The insights generated by researchers through the FNR CORE CULTUREAGEING project can help decision-makers design impactful policies that reflect the full spectrum of ageing’s implications, extending beyond immediate economic concerns to encompass broader social dimensions. Grounded in robust, empirically based research, economists can thus provide recommendations rooted in observable evidence rather than political motivations.

Meet the CULTUREAGING team

Under the leadership of Principal Investigator Prof. Andreas Irmen, the CULTUREAGING team also includes

• Prof. Anastasia Litina, Associate Professor at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece
• Dr. Rana Cömertpay, Research Associate in Development Economics at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
• Dr. Despina Gavresi, Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg
• Maria Krelifa, Research and Development Specialist at the University of Luxembourg