CEPRA - Centre for Economic and Political Research on Aging
The Center for Economic and Political Research on Aging is an international center established at USI in 2012. The center has the goal of promoting policy debate and scientific research on aging, pension and health care issues.
The center aims at stimulating empirical research on population aging, pension and health care design and spending, at promoting academic training on this topics, and at disseminating research output to a specialized and a general audience, through workshops, conferences and public debates. CEPRA acknowledges financial support from the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss Federal Social Security Funds OAI/II/IC (www.compenswiss.ch).
Research focus
The center contributes to three main areas of interest:
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Economic and Political Effects of Aging
The area covers research on ageing and intergenerational relationships, family and fertility issues, economics of the family, gender roles in an aging society, consumption behavior of the elderly, media and the elderly, ecology of firms and institutions. -
Pension Economics and Finance
The area covers research on the design of pension systems (defined contributions, defined benefits, etc.), regulation of private pension plans, the economic and political sustainability of PAYG pension systems in aging societies, pension reforms, private pension funds, balancing of assets and liabilities, asset allocation of pension funds and institutional investors. -
Health, Cognitive Abilities and Well-Being
The area concentrates on models for the economic evaluation of elderly health care programs, the measurement of productivity, organization and regulation of health care institutions, the investigation of the impact of policy instruments and community projects targeted on older people on their quality of life and well-being, the empirical analysis of health expenditures and drug consumption of the elderly population in a federal State, impact of integrated health programs.