Intergenerational equity: policy and data implications - ARCHIVED

I examine three questions in this paper : 1. Does existing knowledge about intergenerational transfers, both public and private, provide the basis for effective policy choices? What is missing? What is needed, in particular by Canada's statistical system? 2. With an aging society, rapidly shifting labour markets, and shrinking social transfers in Canada, is a new generational compact emerging? and 3. What are the roles of differing models of inter-generational transfers, indeed of the demo-graphic concept of generation itself, in defining the field of policy options for Canadians in the late 1990s? In addressing these questions, I rely on analyses and a framework developed in McDaniel (1997).