Whilst all of the major industrialized countries are currently experiencing population ageing, Japan is at the forefront of this demographic trend. This important new book explores the serious economic and social challenges that a rapidly ageing Japanese economy will have to overcome in the...

This essay, written ten years after the first human death from avian influenza, reviews scientific, social, and policy aspects of pandemic influenza, and asks whether the near-crisis level of concern is justified. That there will be another influenza pandemic is certain, and a number of factors...

This article makes three points regarding international assistance in health, AIDS, and population. First, despite growing attention in the development policy dialogue, the share of health (broadly considered) in total assistance is actually declining, not increasing, if assistance for the...

In this paper, trends in official development assistance (ODA) for Health AIDS and Population (HAP) are analysed to gain information about revealed priorities. The major findings are as follows: HIV/AIDS is clearly the top priority in international health assistance. While the share of HAP in...

The reform of public pension systems and, more generally, the review of old-age income support are on the reform agenda worldwide. The reform discussion is more intense in countries where population aging is well advanced, including the member countries of the Organization for Economic...