This book chapter examines self-employment among people aged 50 and over in the liberal market economies of Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA against the backdrop of the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and in the context of long-standing efforts aimed at increasing levels of older workers’ labour force participation. It features in the new Research Handbook on Self-Employment and Public Policy, edited by Wieteke Conen and Enrico Reuter.

The fourth Demography Forum, taking place on 6-7 May in Brussels, will focus on investing for Europe’s demographic future.

IER's Bernard Casey will act as Rapporteur on age and employment for the sesssion entitled "Enable people to be active longer".

IER's latest Bulletin summarises the key findings of a qualitative study on volunteering in later life, drawing on interviews with representatives of voluntary organisations in England. The study investigated policies and practices towards recruitment and volunteer management, with a specific focus on opportunities and any restrictions for older people. Among others, it also sought to elicit views on the impact of extending working lives and care responsibilities of older people on volunteering. It was conducted as part of a larger programme on Activating Senior Potential in an Ageing Europe (ASPA), which was funded under the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities Theme of the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme. This research adds to the “relatively neglected theme of volunteering by older people in Europe” (Ehlers et al., 2011, p.1).

As part of an IER research partnership, Dr Yuxin Li will visiting Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China for the next two weeks. She will be working on the “Ageing and Elderly Care” research network that has been set up. During her stay at Sun Yat-sen University, Yuxin will also visit two universities in Guangzhou – South China Normal University and Jinan University – with the aim of extending the network. Yuxin will also be attending the International conference on Social Policy and Governance Innovation to be held at South China University of Technology in Guangzhou.

Bernard Casey will be making a presentation at the forthcoming 2nd International Conference on Evidence-based Policy in Long-Term Care. The conference will be held at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, UK from 5th to 8th September 2012. Bernard's paper will be on "The development of employment and skills in the social care sector: a comparison of Germany and Japan". The paper draws from work Bernard did for Skills for Care and Development (SfC&D). The conference programme with an abstract of the paper can be downloaded from the conference website.