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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).