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Japan at the forefront of the economics of aging? A bibliometric analysis

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  • Lechevalier, Sébastien
  • Monfort, Brieuc

Abstract

This paper analyzes how economists have considered the question of aging over the last fifty years. The major originality of this paper is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the economics of aging literature, based on the textual analysis of three different and complementary corpora, while existing studies only concern subfields. It shows that the definition of the economics of aging is less straightforward than expected and introduces some identification criteria to get quantitative results on the growth of the literature, its geography, and its research agenda. One claim of the paper is that aging has emerged as a distinct topic that spans different fields, from population to labor economics, and has strong connections with health economics, macroeconomics, and public economics. Topics of interest have evolved over time with notably a major growth for health issues, while pensions issues have been at the center of the investigation for several decades. In addition, we show that the geography of the economics of aging does not correspond to the geography of aging, with Japan somewhat underrepresented in the literature. Lastly, we draw some lessons from this neglect in the dominant research agenda on the economics of aging and suggest directions for future research that would give to Japan more space in comparative studies, given its position at the forefront of aging.

Suggested Citation

  • Lechevalier, Sébastien & Monfort, Brieuc, 2025. "Japan at the forefront of the economics of aging? A bibliometric analysis," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joecag:v:32:y:2025:i:c:s2212828x25000568
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeoa.2025.100601
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    Cited by:

    1. Yamada, Tomoaki, 2025. "Macroeconomic and fiscal implications of changes in the labor share under population aging in Japan," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).
    2. Chen, Fang & Liu, Wenge, 2025. "Aging workforce and industrial Robots: Industry-Level evidence from Japan," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 32(C).

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • B20 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - General
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General

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