VŠE and National bank of Slovakia to explore how economic decision-making changes in an ageing population
The Prague University of Economics and Business (VŠE) and National bank of Slovakia (NBS) will deepen their joint research into the economic consequences of population ageing. They have committed to this in a joint memorandum. In the first phase, the cooperation will focus mainly on the financial decision-making of Slovakia’s ageing population, gradually followed by an analysis of the effects of ageing on the functioning of the labour market. The institutions will publish their findings in the coming years, many of which researchers believe should also be relevant for Czechia.
Population ageing is one of the most significant long-term economic and social changes that Czechia and Slovakia will face in the coming decades. It affects the labour market, public finances, household savings and investments, as well as the way people in older age make complex financial decisions. The cooperation between VŠE researchers and NBS analysts aims to shed more light on a range of these increasingly important questions and patterns.
“For high-quality economic policy, it is important not only to monitor aggregate trends, but also to understand how individuals and households actually make decisions. In this respect, linking microdata with the analytical and experimental methods of VŠE researchers can bring valuable insights for better policy decisions,” said Vladimír Novák from NBS.
The first example of this cooperation is an ongoing experimental study focused on financial decision-making among older people, carried out by Lubomír Cingl and Nathalie Müller from VŠE together with Vladimír Novák from National bank of Slovakia. More than 600 seniors and students have taken part in the research project. Its aim is to determine how these groups differ in terms of trust in financial experts and the preference to retain control over financial decisions, and above all how these factors affect their willingness to delegate financial decisions to experts. The results may contribute not only to a better understanding of economic decision-making in older age, but also to the discussion on how financial services, advice and consumer protection should be designed in an ageing society.
“Population ageing is not only a matter of pension or healthcare systems. It also changes how households work with savings, how they invest and to whom they are willing to entrust important financial decisions. Cooperation with National bank of Slovakia allows us to combine behavioural experiments with the expertise of people who have long analysed the economic behaviour of households,” said Lubomír Cingl from VŠE.
In both Slovakia and Czechia, population ageing also has a significant impact on the functioning of the labour market, which is another area where both institutions see scope for further cooperation. Research may focus, for example, on the reasons for lower employment among older people, employers’ decision-making when hiring older workers, or stereotypes associated with their productivity, flexibility, ability to learn new technologies, or the expected length of their tenure in a company.
“It is precisely the combination of behavioural experiments with economic and administrative data that can help distinguish the extent to which different approaches to age groups in the two labour markets reflect real economic factors, and the extent to which they are merely a consequence of stereotypes on the part of employers,” Cingl explains.
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Prague University of Economics and Business
doc. PhDr. Lubomír Cingl, Ph.D.