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National Transfer Accounts: Concepts and first UK Estimates


Dr. David McCarthy (Imperial College London) has lectured at OIA on 'National Transfer Accounts: Concepts and first UK Estimates' as part of the Economics of Ageing Seminar Series (18/11/2010).

Europe is ageing rapidly; population projections indicate that our old-age dependency ratio will more than double between now and 2050.  A crucial question is how sustainable the economic institutions which mediate age-related flows in our economies - these are the public sector, the family, and capital markets - are in the face of this population ageing.  This paper briefly reviews the concept of National Transfer Accounts (NTA's), which attempt to quantify these economic flows in a manner consistent with National Accounts, presents first estimates of NTA's for the UK in 2007, and provides a short comparison of UK age-related economic flows across some European and other NTA countries.   Some applications of NTA's will also be briefly discussed.

David McCarthy graduated with a PhD from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2002.  He took up a position at Oxford University, after which he moved to Imperial College Business School where he is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Finance and Accounting Group.
He continues to research and lecture in many areas of the economics and finance of pensions, especially pensions policy.

> Further information about Michealmas OIA 2010 Seminar Series