The fiscal impact of population change

Population aging, and changing population age distributions, affect the fiscal situation through multiple channels, including the following: ; 1. Changing age distributions alter the per worker cost of providing a given age-vector of per capita benefits. For example, population aging will dramatically increase the costs of providing even existing benefits for Social Security and Medicare. ; 2. As a qualification to point 1, we note that fluctuations in population age distribution, for example, as caused by the baby boom in the United States, and transitional changes in age distribution, for example, as the population ages, add a dimension to the problem. Such changes can be considerably more dramatic than comparisons of steady states. They raise issues of intergenerational equity and risk-sharing.