The ageing population has led to much public policy and debate about prolonging working lives to reduce welfare costs and respond to projected labour shortages as many workers retire. In this blog, Professor Philip Taylor of IER provides a myth-buster that draws on international evidence to challenge common misconceptions about ageing and work.

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 

Warwick Institute for Employment Research is a research partner on a new project led by the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) that has secured a grant of £1.2 million aimed at tackling dementia in the workplace. Other research partners are Lancaster University, Northumbria University, Edinburgh Napier University, and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Co-edited by IER’s Professor Philip Taylor and Dr Catherine Earl (RMIT Vietnam), the new Research Handbook on Inequalities in Later Life critically examines the myriad social and economic inequalities faced by those in later life. Contributors dissect Global North and South examples to support a new approach to studying ageing that moves beyond popular discourses.

US media outlet CNBC interviewed Professor Philip Taylor about issues of ageing and work during intense scrutiny of the prospect of an octogenarian President in the White House. Find out more about what he said on the CNBC website.