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1
Introduction and Overview
James P. Smith and Malay Majmundar
T
he 17 chapters in this volume have their origins in two “sister”
conferences on the challenges and opportunities of population
aging in Asia, one of which was hosted by the Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences in Beijing and the other by the Indian National Science
Academy in New Delhi.1 The chapters, which include contributions from
China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand, cover the major subject areas
relevant to population aging and can be grouped into four categories:
(1) new and emerging data initiatives, (2) economic growth, labor markets,
and consumption, (3) family roles and responsibilities, and (4) health and
well-being (see Table 1-1).2 While we separate the chapters into these cat-
egories for summary purposes, it is important to note that a central point
of new and emerging international data initiatives is that research and
analysis should not be conducted solely within individual topic domains.
The need for integration is addressed by James P. Smith in “Preparing
for Population Aging in Asia: Strengthening the Infrastructure for Science
and Policy,” which describes the historical demographic and economic
forces at work that made the development of data infrastructure projects
to prepare for population aging so compelling in many countries. These
surveys were all built on the recognition that the main domains of life—
health, income, work, family, and cognition—had to be integrated into the
1 See “Preface” for further details.
2 The chapters are meant to be stand-alone and may, for the convenience of the reader,
repeat some background information (e.g., where and how surveys were conducted).
1
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2 AGING IN ASIA
TABLE 1-1 Papers Organized by Subject Area
Author(s) Title
NEW AND EMERGING DATA INITIATIVES
James P. Smith Preparing for Population Aging in Asia:
Strengthening the Infrastructure for Science and
Policy
P. Arokiasamy, David Bloom, Longitudinal Aging Study in India: Vision, Design,
Jinkook Lee, Kevin Feeney, and Implementation, and Preliminary Findings
Marija Ozolins
ECONOMIC GROWTH, LABOR MARKETS, AND CONSUMPTION
Ronald Lee and Andrew Mason Population Aging, Intergenerational Transfers,
and Economic Growth: Asia in a Global Context
David Wise Facilitating Longer Working Lives: The Need,
the Rationale, the How
John Giles, Dewen Wang, and The Labor Supply and Retirement Behavior
Wei Cai of China’s Older Workers and Elderly in
Comparative Perspective
Albert Park, Yan Shen, Relying on Whom? Poverty and Consumption
John Strauss, and Yaohui Zhao Financing of China’s Elderly
Hidehiko Ichimura and Retirement Process in Japan: New Evidence from
Satoshi Shimizutani the Japanese Study on Aging and Retirement
(JSTAR)
FAMILY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Xiaoyan Lei, John Giles, Patterns and Correlates of Intergenerational
Yuqing Hu, Albert Park, Nontime Transfers: Evidence from CHARLS
John Strauss, and Yaohui Zhao
Firman Witoelar Household Dynamics and Living Arrangements
of the Elderly in Indonesia: Evidence from a
Longitudinal Survey
Lisa F. Berkman, T.V. Sekher, Social Networks, Family, and Care Giving Among
Benjamin Capistrant, and Older Adults in India
Yuhui Zheng
Yuqing Hu, Xiaoyan Lei, Effects of Social Activities on Cognitive Functions:
James P. Smith, and Evidence from CHARLS
Yaohui Zhao
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JAMES P. SMITH and MALAY MAJMUNDAR
TABLE 1-1 Continued
Author(s) Title
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
Firman Witoelar, John Strauss, Socioeconomic Success and Health in Later Life:
and Bondan Sikoki Evidence from the Indonesia Family Life Survey
John Strauss, Hao Hong, Healthcare and Insurance Among the Elderly in
Xiaoyan Lei, Lin Li, China: Evidence from the CHARLS Pilot
Albert Park, Li Yang, and
Yaohui Zhao
Subhojit Dey, Devaki Nambiar, Health of the Elderly in India: Challenges of
J.K. Lakshmi, Kabir Sheikh, Access and Affordability
and K. Srinath Reddy
Jinkook Lee, P. Arokiasamy, Markers and Drivers: Cardiovascular Health of
Amitabh Chandra, Peifeng Hu, Middle-Aged and Older Indians
Jenny Liu, and Kevin Feeney
Paul Kowal, Sharon Williams, Aging, Health, and Chronic Conditions in China
Yong Jiang, Wu Fan, and India: Results from the Multinational Study
P. Arokiasamy, and on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE)
Somnath Chatterji
Dararatt Anantanasuwong and Life Satisfaction of the Older Thai: Findings from
Udomsak Seenprachawong the Pilot HART
same survey platform in order to understand and prepare for successful
population aging. Smith’s essay also describes the history of international
sister studies of the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS), with special
attention paid to the status and unique attributes of the six Asian coun-
tries that have adapted the HRS model—South Korea, Japan, China, India,
Thailand, and Indonesia.
One key new Asian aging survey is the Longitudinal Aging Study in
India (LASI), which had finished its fieldwork for its pilot study shortly
before we held our second meeting in New Delhi. In their paper “Longitu-
dinal Aging Study in India: Vision, Design, Implementation, and Prelimi-
nary Findings,” P. Arokiasamy, David Bloom, Jinkook Lee, Kevin Feeney,
and Marija Ozolins summarize the main protocols of the field work and
the development of the questionnaire content. As with the other Asian
HRS surveys, the field results were uniformly encouraging, with very high
response rates, a good understanding of the questions by respondents,
and a set of results that highlighted the diversity of health and economic
outcomes for the Indian elderly living in a very heterogeneous country.
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4 AGING IN ASIA
Five of the chapters in this volume deal with issues related to eco -
nomic resources and work in Asia. In their conceptual background paper
“Population Aging, Intergenerational Transfers, and Economic Growth:
Asia in a Global Context,” Ronald Lee and Andrew Mason develop a set
of conceptually consistent National Transfer Accounts for many countries
with aging populations, including those in Asia. These National Accounts
are put through past and future country-, year-, and age-specific fertility
and mortality distributions in order to evaluate the implications, magni-
tude, and directions of private and public transfers. Their simulations not
only serve as a useful guide on what the advantages and disadvantages
of population aging really are, but also highlight the timing of the main
transitions that warrant a policy response.
David Wise’s paper “Facilitating Longer Working Lives: The Need,
the Rationale, the How” also provides an important conceptual frame-
work for how countries need to adjust to the important bounty of longer
lives in terms of the length of their working lives. In the past 50 years,
most of the countries of Europe and Asia gained an extra 5 to 10 years of
life at age 65. In spite of those extra years, the labor force trends over the
same period showed declining participation rates largely induced by high
implicit taxes on work. In his essay, Wise makes a persuasive case that
some of the bounty of longer lives must be allocated to prolonging the
labor force participation of older workers.
The other three chapters in this section on work and income are case
studies of work and retirement behaviors in China and Japan using the
new HRS surveys in those countries. In their paper using data from
the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), “The
Labor Supply and Retirement Behavior of China’s Older Workers and
Elderly in Comparative Perspective,” John Giles, Dewen Wang, and Wei
Cai emphasize the distinction between workers in the formal labor mar-
ket where pensions are often quite generous and lead to relatively early
retirement, and the informal (often rural) labor market where individu -
als work to very old age and rely primarily on their families for income
and health support. In another paper in the Chinese context using the
CHARLS data, “Relying on Whom? Poverty and Consumption Financ -
ing of China’s Elderly,” Albert Park, Yan Shen, John Strauss, and Yaohui
Zhao examine how the Chinese elderly finance their consumption. One
innovation of CHARLS is that it follows the lead of the Indonesia Family
Life Survey (IFLS) and includes a detailed consumption module. In these
settings, consumption by the elderly is well above their private income,
and the authors show that the difference is largely due to transfers from
family and government.
In “Retirement Process in Japan: New Evidence from the Japanese
Study on Aging and Retirement (JSTAR),” Hidehiko Ichimura and Satoshi
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JAMES P. SMITH and MALAY MAJMUNDAR
Shimizutani, two of the principal investigators of the Japanese HRS, use
the panel aspects of the JSTAR survey to model work transitions. Until
JSTAR, publicly available panel data on labor market transitions simply
have not been available in Japan to either Japanese or foreign scholars. The
authors report a sharp decline in the probability of remaining employed
at age 60 for men, reflecting eligibility due to existing pension rules and a
high degree of correspondence in spousal retirement decisions.
Four chapters in this volume deal with family roles and responsibilities—
set in China, Indonesia, and India. “Patterns and Correlates of Inter-
generational Nontime Transfers: Evidence from CHARLS,” by Xiaoyan
Lei, John Giles, Yuqing Hu, Albert Park, John Strauss, and Yaohui Zhao,
studies intergenerational transfers between adult children and their elderly
parents. The authors report that the direction of transfers is decidedly
upward in age—from children to their parents—and that these transfers
form an important part of the economic resources of the parents. While all
children tend to contribute to this support, married and better-off children
are more likely to give financial support to their parents. The red flag for the
future, of course, is the dwindling numbers of children of the future elderly,
implying a higher per child cost or fewer total resources going to parents.
In his paper “Household Dynamics and Living Arrangements of the
Elderly in Indonesia: Evidence from a Longitudinal Survey,” based on
the longitudinal waves of the IFLS from 1993 to 2007, Firman Witoelar
documents patterns of living arrangements of the elderly in Indonesia
from the early 1990s to the late 2000s. In Indonesia, the percentage of
those 55 and older living alone or as a couple in a household did not
change much between 1993 and 2007. While these patterns in Indonesia
have been stable, future demographic pressures will likely affect living
arrangement as populations age further. This observation is important
since, given lags in fertility, most of the challenging demographic changes
centered around the family will occur in the next few decades.
“Social Networks, Family, and Care Giving Among Older Adults in
India,” by Lisa F. Berkman, T.V. Sekher, Benjamin Capistrant, and Yuhui
Zheng, describes the basic social networks and relationships of older
Indian men and women across four states from the LASI pilot study. The
authors report that the vast majority of both men and women are well
connected in terms of their intimate family ties as well as more extended,
weaker social networks. While only about 5% of participants lived alone
and about 24% of women were widowed, it will be critical to monitor the
ways in which informal social networks from both family and friends con-
tinue to support Indians well into old age as India continues to experience
demographic and health transitions.
One of the primary concerns of older populations everywhere is how
to delay, and then deal with, the consequences of cognitive decline at older
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6 AGING IN ASIA
ages. In “Effects of Social Activities on Cognitive Functions: Evidence
from CHARLS,” Yuqing Hu, Xiaoyan Lei, James P. Smith, and Yaohui
Zhao investigate the relationship between cognitive abilities and social
activities for people aged 45 and older. Social activities are defined as
participating in certain common activities in China such as playing chess,
card games, or Mahjong; interacting with friends; and other social activi -
ties. There appear to be strong associations of memory with engagement
in social activities. While the authors do not present causal estimates, they
also report that having an activity center in the community is significantly
related to higher episodic memory.
The final life domains covered by the chapters in this volume are
health and overall well-being. Long life and better health during old age
are relatively new phenomena in Asian countries and represent great
improvements in human welfare. However, these successes come with a
challenge—maintaining good health of, and providing medical care for,
a population that was previously small and whose health needs were
largely ignored. Reflecting the importance of health, six chapters in this
volume deal with the health of the elderly in Asian countries.
In “Socioeconomic Success and Health in Later Life: Evidence from the
Indonesia Family Life Survey,” Firman Witoelar, John Strauss, and Bondan
Sikoki document long-term trends in the health of the Indonesian elderly
using the IFLS. Many of the changes they find represent improvements in
health, such as lower under-nutrition and communicable disease. Yet there
are some disturbing signs as well—the increase in overweight and waist
circumference, especially among women, and continuing high levels of
hypertension. In addition, low hemoglobin, low HDL cholesterol, and high
rates of undiagnosed hypertension seem to be inadequately addressed by
the health system, and smoking among male Indonesians has continued
unabated. These results raise serious questions regarding the ability of the
health system in Indonesia to cope with the rapid aging of the population
and the transition from infectious to chronic diseases.
In developing Asian countries, the availability of health insurance and
access to healthcare for older populations has been very problematic. This
situation, however, is in a rapid state of flux, with new programs being
introduced to extend health insurance into rural areas. In “Healthcare and
Insurance Among the Elderly in China: Evidence from the CHARLS Pilot,”
John Strauss, Hao Hong, Xiaoyan Lei, Lin Li, Albert Park, Li Yang, and
Yaohui Zhao take advantage of the CHARLS pilot data to model the prob-
ability of having health insurance and receiving care. Those with a lower
probability of having health insurance (even with these new programs) are
the poor, older women, and migrants. Reimbursement rates vary signifi-
cantly by type of care and place of residence, reflecting the important role
of communities in China in financing and organizing healthcare.
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JAMES P. SMITH and MALAY MAJMUNDAR
The Indian case is addressed in “Health of the Elderly in India:
Challenges of Access and Affordability,” by Subhojit Dey, Devaki Nambiar,
J.K. Lakshmi, Kabir Sheikh, and K. Srinath Reddy. As in other Asian coun-
tries, the Indian elderly face a unique set of health-related challenges
owing to the dual burden of chronic and degenerative noncommunicable
diseases and communicable diseases. Key challenges to access to health
for this population include social barriers shaped by gender and other
dimensions of social inequality (e.g., religion, caste, socioeconomic status,
and stigma); physical barriers such as reduced mobility; declining social
engagement; and the limited reach of the health system. Even as India
aspires to move forward on a path towards universal health coverage,
this chapter points out that stark data gaps persist for policy measures to
improve access.
Two common attributes about health status in developing Asian coun-
tries are high rates of undiagnosed disease and great regional heterogeneity
in health outcomes. In their paper “Markers and Drivers: Cardiovascular
Health of Middle-Aged and Older Indians,” Jinkook Lee, P. Arokiasamy,
Amitabh Chandra, Peifeng Hu, Jenny Liu, and Kevin Feeney report simi-
lar findings for India based on LASI pilot data. These findings are made
even more compelling by the fact that they combine self-reports of health
status with biomarkers. Given the high rates of undiagnosed disease in
these developing Asian countries, these findings confirm that biomarkers
are absolutely necessary in surveys of the elderly in Asia.
In “Aging, Health and Chronic Conditions in China and India:
Results from the Multinational Study on Global AGEing and Adult
Health (SAGE),” Paul Kowal, Sharon Williams, Yong Jiang, Wu Fan,
P. Arokiasamy, and Somnath Chatterji compare health outcomes of
the elderly in India and China. The authors report that 80% of cardio-
vascular disease deaths occur in lower- and middle-income countries,
including China and India. There are important similarities between the
two countries, including considerable underreporting of chronic diseases
associated with older ages and high levels of disease co-morbidity. The
detection of underdiagnosis was possible by comparing self-reports and
symptom-reporting, both of which are part of the SAGE survey protocols.
China’s levels of treatment for chronic health conditions were generally
higher than India’s, with the highest levels of treatment for angina and
diabetes. Overall, though, and in particular for depression, healthcare
coverage for patients with noncommunicable diseases is strikingly low
in both countries.
In the final chapter in this volume, “Life Satisfaction of the Older Thai:
Findings from the Pilot HART,” Dararatt Anantanasuwong and Udomsak
Seenprachawong investigate the determinants of life satisfaction using the
Thai version of the HRS, the Panel Survey and Study on Health, Aging,
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8 AGING IN ASIA
and Retirement in Thailand (HART). They report large urban and rural
differences in life satisfaction in Thailand, with rural Thais being sig-
nificantly less satisfied with their lives. Physical health has the strongest
association with life satisfaction compared to other domains, and having
friends and being engaged in social activities are also strongly positively
associated with life satisfaction.
STRENGTHENING INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY FOR
AGING RESEARCH IN ASIA
The broad range of topics covered by the chapters in this volume
exemplify the way in which investments in high-quality data and research
can produce information and insights that may prove valuable to policy -
makers as they confront the challenges of aging populations. One impor-
tant prerequisite to the production of useful scientific knowledge is to
have in place well-designed institutions that facilitate innovation and
collaboration.3
In the United States, government funding of social science research
is relatively decentralized and generally uncoordinated (Calhoun, 2010).
Within this pluralistic environment, the National Institute on Aging
(NIA), which is one of 27 institutes and centers within the National Insti -
tutes of Health (NIH), plays a primary and pivotal role in supporting
aging research. NIA conducts on-site “intramural” research and funds
off-site “extramural” research on genetic, biological, clinical, behavioral,
social, and economic topics related to aging processes, diseases, and con -
ditions.4 NIA is also primarily responsible for funding the Health and
Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey
of Americans over the age of 50 that collects information every two years
about income, work, assets, pension plans, health insurance, disability,
physical health and functioning, cognitive functioning, and healthcare
expenditures.
Even though NIA is the main sponsor of the HRS, the study itself is
designed, administered, and conducted by researchers in the academic
community rather than by government statisticians (Juster and Suzman,
1995; National Institute on Aging, 2007). Such cooperative arrangements
have proven to be fundamental to the success of studies that are longitu-
dinal and model-based (as distinguished from cross-sectional surveys that
may be more descriptive in nature). It is also important that such studies
3 The
discussion that follows is based in part on Majmundar (2011).
4 Grants
to individual researchers, usually for three to five years, are the extramural grant
type most commonly used by NIH. Other extramural grant types include grants to research
centers and multi-project research projects, as well as exploratory grants and small grants.
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JAMES P. SMITH and MALAY MAJMUNDAR
be sponsored by agencies—such as NIA—that are sufficiently involved
in aging research across different scientific disciplines so as to be able to
bring together the different kinds of expertise necessary for the design
and management of those studies (Juster and Suzman, 1995).
HRS-type studies in Asia are, to an extent, beginning to develop
along just such institutional lines. CHARLS and LASI, for example, are
designed and managed by networks of academics (CHARLS by the China
Center for Economic Research at Peking University; and LASI by the
International Institute for Population Studies, Mumbai, and the School
of Public Health at Harvard University). What remains to be seen in
the longer term, however, is whether and how these surveys will find
appropriate institutional support from their own national governments,
comparable to that provided by NIA to the HRS. If, for example, the
governments of China and India decided to lend their full support to
CHARLS and LASI, the question as to which government agencies would
actually fund and oversee those surveys is something that would require
careful consideration.
These institutional issues are relevant not only to the future of HRS-
type surveys in Asia, but also more generally to the overall quality of
aging research in those countries. After all, a government agency that does
not have the resources and expertise to support a sophisticated longitu -
dinal survey is, by definition, an agency that will find it difficult to play a
lead role in promoting high-quality aging research. This raises a number
of additional questions about research infrastructures in Asian countries,
the lessons that may be learned from the U.S. experience, and the variety
of approaches (and the potential tradeoffs among them) that should be
taken into account when thinking about institutional design. At least four
issues are worth considering in more detail: (1) finding the optimal degree
of centralization and coordination, (2) managing peer review, (3) facilitat -
ing interdisciplinary research, and (4) diversifying funding streams.
Finding the Optimal Degree of Centralization and Coordination
One fundamental issue is the extent of centralization within public
institutions and the degree of coordination between them. The 27 insti -
tutes that make up NIH, for example, are organized around (among other
things) specific diseases, life stages, and disciplines. These institutes gener-
ally enjoy considerable amounts of budgetary and operational autonomy,
so much so that they have been characterized as “largely independent
fiefdoms” (Cohen, 1993:1,675; Varmus, 2001). NIH can benefit politically
and financially when the enthusiasm of supporters and advocacy groups
is reflected in the creation of new institutes to which those constituency
groups feel especially loyal. The drawback of the “proliferation of insti-
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10 AGING IN ASIA
tutes,” however, is that they may result in “less flexibility, less managerial
capacity, less coordination, and more administrative burden” for NIH as
a whole (Varmus, 2001:1,905).
These political and bureaucratic dynamics can also have significant
implications for relationships between different government agencies. In
the United States, early supporters of the National Science Foundation
(NSF) envisioned a strong central role for NSF as the major supporter of
basic research. By the time NSF came into existence in 1950, however, NIH
had already gained sizeable appropriations from Congress and had begun
to establish enduring political constituencies for itself. NSF therefore had
to coexist with the “extensive though disjointed” government-sponsored
research system that was already in place (Mazuzan, 1994:5). The question
of how these forces and factors will unfold across the different countries
of Asia is an important one. (See Box 1-1 for an overview of some of the
major scientific institutions in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan.)
Managing Peer Review
Asian countries that are interested in expanding their investments
in aging research may want to give some consideration to peer review
processes. NIH has an elaborate peer review mechanism in place for
funding extramural research. Peer review allows the quality of funding
proposals to be evaluated rigorously and independently, and it makes
NIH accountable for how funds are used (National Research Council,
2003). Peer review may also provide funding agencies with a measure of
protection against politically motivated attacks on controversial research
(Kaiser, 2003). One of the limitations of peer review when it becomes too
conservative and establishment-oriented in its evaluation of science is that
it may discriminate against novel, high-risk proposals and create a bias
against young investigators and researchers (National Research Council,
2003). Striking an appropriate balance with peer review can sometimes
be a challenge.
In China, the use of peer review for funding social science research
has become increasingly common since the early 1980s. Since 2000, in
response to perceived deficiencies in the peer review process, several
measures have been taken, such as including more experts in the pool
of referees and making their selection more standardized; making the
evaluation process more anonymous and putting into place regulations
to supervise panel meetings and make the project approval and evalu-
ation systems more accountable; and making it easier for projects that
are interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, experimental, or controversial
to be submitted to special panels of experts who are drawn from differ-
ent fields of research (Lili, 2010). In Japan, similarly, there has been an
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JAMES P. SMITH and MALAY MAJMUNDAR
BOX 1-1
Scientific Institutions in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan
The management and organization of research funding can vary greatly
across different Asian countries. In China, the major government agencies in the
field of science and technology are the Ministry of Science and Technology, which
formulates development plans and implements policy guidelines; the Ministry of
Education, which manages education funds for higher and postgraduate educa-
tion; the National Natural Science Foundation, which provides funding for basic
research and some applied research; and the National Social Science Foundation,
which allocates resources for social science researchers at universities and to
research institutes (Ping, 2010).
In India, major promoters of social science research include the University
Grants Commission, which is the main body administering universities and is
responsible for providing funds and coordinating, determining, and maintaining
standards; and the Indian Council of Social Science Research, which sponsors
autonomous research institutes in different parts of the country (Krishna and
Krishna, 2010). Social science research is also funded by agencies such as the
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Social Justice and Empower-
ment, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Statistics and Pro-
gramme Implementation, and the Reserve Bank of India.
In Indonesia, the Ministry of Research and Technology, which has seven
research and development agencies under its direct authority, is primarily respon-
sible for driving science and technology policy (Turpin et al., 2010). One of these
institutes, the National Institute for Scientific Research (LIPI), contains a Division of
Social Sciences and Humanities that is responsible for conducting and promoting
social science research. The division has five research centers, including a Center
for Economic Research and a Population Research Center. As in India, a number
of other ministries (such as the Ministry of National Education) also support social
science research.
In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology
(MEXT) administers Grants-in-Aid for Academic Research, which is the largest
competitive fund allocated on the basis of merit and may be regarded as the clos-
est equivalent in Japan to the U.S. National Science Foundation. The Ministry of
Health, Labor, and Welfare administers the Health and Labor Sciences Research
Grants, which focus on health and medical research as well as social science
research related to health policy; this fund may be regarded as the closest equiva-
lent in Japan to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Japan also has a number of government-funded institutes on the social
sciences. The Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry is funded by
the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry and is the largest contributor to the
Japanese Study on Aging and Retirement. Other examples include the National
Institute of Population and Social Security Research, which was established by
the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare; and the National Institute of Science
and Technology Policy, which falls under the jurisdiction of MEXT. As in India and
Indonesia, many other ministries in Japan also have some funds with which to
pursue policy-related research.
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12 AGING IN ASIA
increased emphasis on competitive funds allocated on the basis of merit
(Sato, 2010).
Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research
The aging process is multifaceted and multidimensional, and it
touches upon a broad range of biological and social issues. Aging research
ought to span multiple disciplines and approach questions from a variety
of perspectives. Therefore, Asian countries may want to think about the
best ways of incorporating interdisciplinary principles into the design of
public institutions. The research components of NIA, for example, include
the Division of Aging Biology, Division of Behavioral and Social Research,
Division of Neuroscience, and Division of Geriatrics and Clinical Geron -
tology. This organizational structure reflects the multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary mission of NIA, with the social and behavioral sciences
housed in the same place as the biomedical and other sciences.
It is worth noting that the social and behavioral sciences have often
had to struggle for equitable footing with the “hard” sciences. In the
late 1950s, for example, the incorporation of the social sciences into
NSF’s formal mandate was met with resistance (Mazuzan, 1994). In 2005,
research expenditures on “social science and humanities” constituted
5.5% of “gross expenditure on R&D” in the United States, 4.6% in Japan,
and 1.4% in China (Kahn, 2010).5
Diversifying Funding Streams
Although governmental institutions play a key role in supporting
research and setting broad scientific priorities, their resources are also lim-
ited—perhaps now more than ever. In 2002, for example, around 30% of
researchers submitting grant applications to NIA were successful (for any
single deadline) in obtaining funding; by 2010, that figure had fallen to
8% (Wadman, 2010). Consequently, Asian countries may want to consider
the role that could be played by private foundations in filling this gap. In
India, for example, the Tata Trust, Birla Trust, and Ford Foundation have
been longtime supporters of social science research, and a number of new
foundations supporting social science research have been established by
corporate firms (Krishna and Krishna, 2010). In Japan, similarly, academic
research is supported by private organizations such as the Toyota Founda-
tion and Mitsubishi Foundation.
5 In
2005, gross expenditure on all research and development constituted 2.6% of gross
domestic product in the United States, 3.3% in Japan, and 1.3% in China (Kahn, 2010).
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JAMES P. SMITH and MALAY MAJMUNDAR
In the United States, the research priorities and decision processes of
private foundations are diverse and often idiosyncratic, and the research
support that they provide may be less consistent and predictable than the
support provided by governmental institutions. For example, of the 10
wealthiest foundations in the United States,6 only the MacArthur Foun-
dation, with its Research Network on an Aging Society, has an organized
research program that is explicitly focused on aging. As Asian countries
strengthen their institutional capacity for aging research, they may want
to think about ways of designing public institutions and forging pub -
lic-private partnerships so that private resources are more likely to be
mobilized and, subsequent to that, allocated in ways that are systematic,
coordinated, and consistent with good science.
THE PATH FORWARD
Policymakers cannot address the challenges and opportunities of
population aging without a strong evidentiary base. Science academies
in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and the United States have recognized
the importance of data collection efforts that are nationally representa -
tive, internationally comparable, interdisciplinary, and publicly available
(Chinese Academy of Social Sciences et al., 2010). The chapters in this
volume are the product of new and emerging data initiatives that can
facilitate informed decision-making well into the future. In order to derive
maximal benefit from these efforts, national governments in Asia will
need to support and invest in these data infrastructures and, more gen -
erally, ensure that appropriate institutional mechanisms are in place for
encouraging high-quality research. The papers that follow provide new
information on various social and economic aspects of population aging
in Asia, and they are promising examples of the kinds of research and
analysis that could help inform policy development in those countries.
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