Implications of chronic disease for elderly contributions to market and productive non-market activities
Synopsis
Recent
estimates suggest that unpaid work accounts for about 10% to 40% of GDP in OECD
countries, including significant contributions by the elderly. A recognition of
the value of unpaid services provided to society by the elderly also implies
that policy evaluations of interventions should extend assessments to go beyond
traditional indicators to include implications for non-market activities. In
the context of interventions to improve health, this would mean extending
measures of cost-effectiveness or cost-benefit ratios to go beyond traditional
approaches that focus on outcomes such as beneficiaries ’ quality of life, or
their paid work contributions. The proposed work will shed light on this
subject by exploring the potential consequences of chronic conditions for the
economic value of elderly contributions in Australia and selected Asian
countries – as workers and as providers of unpaid services, or productive non-market
activities (PNMA).