Dear Colleague,

 

I hope this note reaches you well. My name is Rahim Kanani and I serve as digital editor of the IMF’s Finance & Development magazine. Given your expertise and professional focus on demographics, aging and the economic, health, and social impact of key population trends, among other related issues, I am writing to you directly to share some news, and I was hoping you might pass along this note to relevant colleagues, researchers and policy staff on your team.

 

We just launched our March 2020 issue on the economic impact of changing demographics, which features the world's leading authorities—inside and outside the IMF—on population trends, health, aging, migration, fertility rates and growth. As you continue to explore these issues and craft policies to address them, I hope you find this curated collection of the latest research and analysis insightful, engaging and action-oriented.

 

I’ve listed key articles in the cover package below:

• Harvard’s David E. Bloom discusses how demographics can be a potent driver of the pace and process of economic development in “Population 2020.”
• In “The Long, Good Life,” London Business School’s Andrew Scott explains why longer, more productive lives will mean big changes to the old rules of aging.
• Poh Lin Tan of the National University of Singapore digs deeper into Singapore’s experience in trying to raise its fertility rate, and draws out lessons for other countries in “Reversing Demographic Decline.”
• In “Shrinkanomics: Lessons from Japan,” Gee Hee Hong and Todd Schneider of the IMF discuss why Japan is the world’s policy laboratory for dealing with an aging, shrinking population.
• In Europe’s newest states, emigration compounds the problem of aging populations, writes Maria Petrakis in "Eastern Europe's Exodus."
• Giovanni Peri of the University of California, Davis, writes about how immigration can solve the demographic dilemma, but not without the right policies in “Immigrant Swan Song.”
• In “Getting Older but Not Poorer,” David Amaglobeli, Era Dabla-Norris, and Vitor Gaspar of the IMF argue that as societies age worldwide, pensions and public policies must adapt.
• Lawrence H. Summers of Harvard University writes about the need for new approaches to deal with sluggish growth in “Accepting the Reality of Secular Stagnation.”

Finally, if you would like to receive F&D updates on future articles and issues, please do sign up to our newsletter here – or just let me know directly. I’ll be happy to add you myself.

 

Take good care and glad to be in touch!

 

Sincerely, Rahim

 

P.S. This issue will soon be online in pусский, عربي, español, français, 日本語, and 中文.

 

 

RAHIM KANANI

Digital Editor, Finance & Development Magazine (F&D)

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND

700 19th Street NW  I  HQ1 5-306  I  Washington, DC 20431

T: +(1) 202.623.9501 I rkanani@imf.org