CENTER ON THE ECONOMICS & DEMOGRAPHY OF AGING
CEDA facilitates and sponsors aging research in four thematic areas, in keeping with its focus on the economics and demography of aging:
This theme encompasses macro and micro analyses, and descriptive and causal analyses. Several ongoing research studies fall under this theme: The Human Mortality Database, and the Costa Rican Longevity and Healthy Aging Study (CRELES). Others are pilot projects of shorter duration.
The biodemography of aging encompasses genetic and epigenetic effects on biodemography, evolutionary theory, and biodemographic mechanisms underlying decision-making; biological experiments; genomic analysis; data building.
This theme encompasses theory and empirical analysis at the intersection of psychology and economics, the Behavioral Change Research Network, and experimental economics innovations. Berkeley is a leading center of this work, with aging-focused research such as on understanding financial decision-making among the elderly, and behavioral economics interventions to improve health behaviors. Resaerchers in this sub-field also concern themselves with questions of methodology and the assumptions and expectations of the research community, and how these shape the field.
This theme finds expression through ongoing work on generational accounting, life cycle planning, demographic transition, and demographic dividends; stochastic Social Security projections, Federal/State/Local budget projections, microsimulation projections, macro-stochastic simulation to assess new pension structures, and mortality forecasting.