NARI Seminars in Ageing: Australia’s Approach to Social Protection in the context of Population Ageing

Professor John Piggott AO

About the Presenter:

Professor John Piggott AO, is Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR) at the University of New South Wales, where he is Scientia Professor of Economics. A former Australian Professorial Fellow, he has published widely on issues in retirement and pension economics and finance; and in public finance more generally; his research has appeared in the leading international economics and actuarial academic journals. He is currently Associate Editor of the Journal of the Economics of Ageing.

John worked with the Japanese government for nearly a decade from 1999 on pension and population ageing issues. He has undertaken consultancies and contract research for a range of foreign governments and international organisations, including Russia, Indonesia, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and UNESCAP. From 2008-2010 he was Visiting Scholar at the Wharton School of Business, and in 2018, was awarded a Rockefeller Residency to undertake research into ageing and inequality in Asia. 

In 2019, he was appointed co-chair of the Think20 (T20) Task Force on Aging Population during Japan’s G20 Presidency, and from 2019 to 2022 was a Commissioner on the US National Academy of Medicine’s International Commission on Healthy Longevity. He jointly led the establishment of the International Pension Research Association (IPRA) which was launched at the OECD in Paris in 2019. At a national level, he was a member of both the Henry Tax Review (2008-9) and the Australian Ministerial Superannuation Advisory Committee for 5 years from 2007. Professor Piggott is appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2020 Australia Day Honours List for his distinguished service to education, to population ageing research and to public finance policy development.

About the Seminar:

The presentation contrasts Australia’s approach to social protection policy with that adopted in other developed nations. It outlines the links between population ageing and economic variables, and shows how the Australian approach performs better under population ageing. 

Retirement incomes have been chosen as the exemplar policy. With this background, implications for the approach to Aged Care funding, currently under debate, are explored, along with the application of Australia’s approach to social protection policy formulation in the emerging nations of Asia.

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