The process of redesigning our welfare states in response to demographic change is very different from country to country, due to differences in the pace and scale of population ageing, due to different welfare state models, due to different political and historical circumstances. What can we learn from these differences? Where have we been successful? Where do we need more reform? Where can research contribute to rational long-term policy?
The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a longitudinal, multi-disciplinary micro-database on the health, socio-economic status and social and family networks of more than 140,000 individuals (approximately 380,000 interviews) aged 50 and over in 27 European countries (+ Israel).
SHARE was designed almost 20 years ago to answer these questions. At the International Centre on Ageing (CENIE) we want to use the SHARE data as an example of what we can learn from internationally harmonised indicators on the health, social and economic situation in Europe, including the results of two special rounds of surveys during the Covid-19 pandemic.
SHARE is an international, interdisciplinary project, promoted by a consortium of EU and US scientists in response to the European Commission's request to "examine the possibility of establishing, in cooperation with Member States, a European longitudinal survey" to promote European research on the ageing process. SHARE's multidisciplinary approach provides a comprehensive view of the ageing process.
Axel Börsch-Supan coordinates the SHARE project, professor at MEA (Munich Center for the Economics of Aging), of the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, and is the one who contributes his knowledge in this new CENIE action within the "Economics of Longevity: a determining reality" Meetings held in Salamanca and which aim to improve knowledge on how the demographic structure of the population and the economy are interrelated.
This activity is an initiative of the International Centre on Ageing and is promoted by the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, in the framework of the INTERREG V-A Programme, Spain-Portugal, 2014-2020, (POCTEP), of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).