Centre for Economic Research on Ageing

The issues raised by ageing populations, and in particular the topics of retirement, saving and pension provision, are some of the most important policy issues currently facing the government. Increasingly, economists are developing new techniques and collecting new data designed to understand such issues, and researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies have been at the forefront of these activities in the UK.

The centre for economic research on ageing gathers together IFS research in these areas and will take it forward on a coherent basis, targeting the research towards the big policy questions in the economics of ageing. At the heart of the centre is the analysis, and design, of individual level data on all aspects of later life, including economic and social position, health and cognitive function. Such data is becoming increasingly available in many countries and cera researchers are working actively with economists and non-economists both nationally and internationally to bring the analysis of such data to the forefront of the policy debate.