The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing: Design, First Results and Future Possibilities
-
By 2030, one in five people resident in Ireland will be 65 years or older.
-
The greatest increase will be in the over 80's.
-
Of female children born today, over 50% are likely to survive to age 100 or beyond.
One of the great success stories of modern times is the increasing number of people living into old age. However, this triumph is also one of our greatest challenges.
TILDA
The Irish LongituDinal Study on Ageing (TILDA - http://www.tcd.ie/tilda) was launched by Minister for Health Mary Harney in November 2006 to study a representative cohort of at least 8,000 people, aged 50 and over and resident in Ireland, charting their health, social and economic circumstances over a 10-year period. Between late 2009 and early 2011, the first wave of data was collected. The same sample will be re-interviewed in 2012, and again in 2014, 2016 and 2018.
The study is being carried out by Trinity College Dublin in collaboration with an inter-disciplinary panel of scientific researchers and with advice from a group of international scientists. The study aims to assemble a comprehensive and accurate picture of the characteristics, needs and contributions of older persons in Ireland.
The first results from TILDA were published in last May in a report titled “Fifty Plus in Ireland 2011”. The report is available at http://www.tilda.tcd.ie/publications.
Presentation
In his presentation, Professor Alan Barrett review how TILDA has been designed. He will then provide insights into the information that has emerged from TILDA so far on the social, economic and health status of older persons in Ireland. He will discuss how the data can be used to analyse a range of macroeconomic and microeconomic issues of interest, with a view to providing a solid foundation for decisions on the health, medical, social and economic policies needed to support successful ageing in Ireland.
Alan’s presentation will be of interest to everyone who is involved in advising on – or simply interested in – the social and economic challenges of an ageing population and how these challenges will affect individuals, businesses and society as a whole.
To access podcast please contact the Society: info@actuaries.ie
Professor Alan Barrett joined the ESRI in 1994, upon the completion of his doctoral studies at Michigan State University. His main research areas are labour economics and population economics. He has worked extensively on migration and has published on the topic in journals such as Labour Economics, the Journal of Population Economics, the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, the International Migration Review, Population Research and Policy Review, the Economic and Social Review, the National Institute Economic Review and Economics Letters.
Alan has also worked on environmental economics. In 1997, he co-authored a book on environmental policy (The Fiscal System and the Polluter Pays Principle: A Case-study of Ireland, published by Ashgate). Between 2005 and 2010, he was a co-author of the ESRI’s Quarterly Economic Commentary.
Alan is a Research Fellow with IZA (Institute for the Study of Labor) in Bonn, Germany. He is also an associate editor of the Economic and Social Review. He was appointed recently to be a member of the newly-established Irish Fiscal Advisory Council.
Alan is currently on secondment to Trinity College Dublin where he is Project Director with TILDA.