National Transfer Accounts Project

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National Transfer Accounts

National Transfer Accounts (NTA) is an accounting system for measuring intergenerational transfers at the aggregate level in a manner consistent with National Income and Product Accounts. NTA provides estimates of economic flows across age groups that arise primarily because children and the elderly consume more than they produce relying on reallocations from the working ages. NTA accounts distinguish the forms of these flows: as the accumulation of capital, as transfers, and as credit transactions. The accounts distinguish the institutions that mediate the transactions: governments, markets, and families.

When complete the NTA accounts will provide estimates with sufficient historical depth to study the evolution of intergenerational transfer systems; the consequences of alternative approaches to age reallocations embodied in public policy with respect to pensions, health care, education and social institutions, e.g., the extended family; and the social, political, and economic implications of population aging.

What's New

Congratulation to Naohiro Ogawa!

hiro Naohiro Ogawa, an NTA researcher from Japan, was recently elected a Council Member of the Asia Population Association. He is a professor of economics at Nihon University and Director of NUPRI.

Congratulation to Chong-Bum An!

cban pic Chong-Bum An, an NTA researcher for Korea, was recently elected the president of Korea Association of Public Finance. He is a professor of economics at SungKyunKwan University.

Ron Lee's Interview with the Population Reference Bureau

ron pic Recently, Ron Lee --one of the Project's principal investigators-- was interviewed by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). Ron talked about recent trends in the U.S. mortality and aging and also discussed the NTA Project. '' Interview with Ron

Recent Publications

Racelis, Rachel H., and J.M. Ian Salas. 2008. "Have Lifecycle Consumption and Income Patterns in the Philippines Changed between 1994 and 2002?" PIDS Discussion Paper No. 2008-11.

This paper finds that Filipinos incur lifecycle deficits and do not become self-sufficient until after age 25, lifecycle surpluses are generated for the next 35 years, and at age 61 consumption starts to exceed labor earnings and lifecycle deficits are once again incurred. Consumption of the elderly is financed by own earnings, asset reallocation, private transfers (starting age 73) and to a very small extent by public transfers (starting age 80).

Meetings

Sixth National Transfer Account Workshop
January 9-10, 2009. The workshop will be held at the Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging, University of California - Berkeley and is co-sponsored by the East-West Center and the Nihon University Population Research Institute. NTA researchers from 28 countries are expected to participate as well as distinguished economists working on aging and economics issues. The meeting will be followed by a one-week intensive training program.

European NTA Workshop on "Intergenerational Transfers in a European Perspective"
October 23-24, 2008. Researchers from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden are expected to meet in Stockholm to discuss country specific results and/or methodological issues of more general kind from the NTA project. Organized by the Institute for Futures Studies (IFS) with support from Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet, VR). See European NTA Workshop on "Intergenerational Transfers in a European Perspective", Stockholm, Sweden, October 23-24, 2008

National Dissemination Workshop on National Transfer Accounts for Nigeria: Implications for Social Policy in Nigeria
October 22, 2008. Abuja, Nigeria. NTA researchers, Adedoyin Soyibo and Olanrewaju Olaniyan, presented their findings in front of the country's government officials, academics, and the general public.

39th Summer Seminar on Population
June 3-July 3, 2008. Fourteen researchers from nine Asian, European, Latin American, and African countries met in Honolulu for a month-long workshop on macroeconomics and population age structure. Participants estimated and employed National Transfer Accounts to improve our understanding of the implications for development and poverty of changes in population age structure. The workshop was sponsored by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

For more information see Meetings and Presentations

Summary of Results

Per capita age profiles of life cycle deficit (LCD) for selected NTA countries. LCD is defined as the difference between consumption and labor income at a given age. Positive values of LCD mean consumptions are higher than labor income at those ages.

American Countries

LCD_americas1

European Countries

LCD_europe1

East Asian Countries

LCD_east-asia1

South and Southeast Asian Countries

LCD_s_sea1

Compare your estimates of per capita lifecycle variables with those from other countries by downloading the spreadsheet. Summarizing results

In the News

NTA-related news in the media

Members and Organization

Support for this project has been provided by the National Institute on Aging: NIA, R37-AG025488 and NIA, R01-AG025247; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the International Development Research Center (IDRC); the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and the Academic Frontier Project for Private Universities: matching fund subsidy from MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), 2006-10, granted to the Nihon University Population Research Institute.

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