While countries around the world have experienced unprecedented shifts in their population
age structures over the last 70 years, it has only really been over the last 20 years that research into the impact of the structure of the population on the economy has gained momentum. Analytically, it is the recognition that engagement in the economy and the resulting economic flows between individuals vary with age that underpins this impact: children consume more than they produce; prime working-age cohorts produce more than they consume, transferring surpluses to others or saving them for old age; and the elderly use transfers from others, asset income or dissaving to Finance their consumption given low levels of labour income.