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Aging

Eggleston: East Asia's demographic challenges

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Demographic change is fast becoming one of the most globally significant trends of the 21st century. Declining fertility rates and rising life expectancy -- two of the patterns triggering demographic change -- will cause vast socioeconomic strains, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, which has some of the world's most populous countries. Stanford health researcher Karen Eggleston says comparison and cross-collaboration are needed to induce creative solutions.

In an interview with the Office of International Affairs, Eggleston discusses her research approaches and partnerships in the study of healthcare systems and health policy in the Asia-Pacific region. She leads a multiyear research initative that examines comparative policy responses to demographic change in East Asia. Eggleston says the goal is to help move global health policy to a place where everyone has an "equal opportunity for a healthier and longer life."

The Q&A may be viewed in full by clicking here.

Analyzing demographic change in China, Japan and South Korea is the focus of the book Aging Asia, an outcome of a conference between the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Stanford Center on Longevity.

Eggleston also coedited a special issue of the Journal of the Economics of Ageing with David Bloom, a professor at Harvard University, looking at a range of economic issues related to population change in China and India.

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Research Presentations - Yun Bae Lim and Jong Soo Paek

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In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

 

Yun Bae Lim, Samsung Life Insurance, “Demographic Changes in Korea:  How to Cut Through the High Seas”

Particularly in industrialized countries, people are living longer, while birth rates are declining.  Today, the average Korean lives longer than the average citizen in developed nations (as represented by the members of the OECD).  This is a significant milestone for a country that back in the 1960’s had a life expectancy of 52 years, which was amongst the lowest in the world. 

In his research presentation, Lim will focus on these demographic changes and the effects such as the decrease in the producing population, the increase in the total dependency rate and the shrinking potential growth rate.  Lim will offer some policy-related solutions to address this critical issue.

 

Jong Soo Paek, Samsung Electronics, “Open Innovation in the Electronics Industry”

Many companies in the electronics industry are struggling to survive because of lack of demand, low profit, etc.  Companies are also failing to make new innovative business while existing businesses are showing their limitation in terms of growth potential.  As a result, customers are seeing the electronics industry is not innovative. 

To overcome this hurdle, the open innovation model has become more popular replacing the closed innovation model in the past.  The open innovation model is a kind of process or strategy, in which companies can increase new ideas and technologies flowing into their innovation funnel by searching external sources and integrating them with internal ideas and resources.

Even though the open innovation model is really powerful, in reality, for large companies with Asian legacy and culture, it is not an easy task to manage.  There are many issues that undermine the success rate and effectiveness of open innovation such as closed-minds, the NIH syndrome, internal resistance, lack of capabilities necessary and so on.  Through his research presentation, Paek will discuss some solutions that are suitable for large, Asian companies like Samsung Electronics.

 

Philippines conference room

Encina Hall, Third Floor, Central

Jong Soo Paek

Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room E301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 725-8659 (650) 723-6530
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Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellow
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MBA

Jong Soo Paek is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2014.  Paek has been working at Samsung Motors, Samsung Corporations, and Samsung Electronics since 1997 in various teams such as Marketing Strategy and Strategy Planning.  Most recently, he was Senior Manager in Corporate Strategy Offices and was responsible for public relations and communications.  Prior to joining the Corporate Strategy Office, he was the manager responsible for strategy planning.  Paek majored in Business Administration and received his bachelor's and master's degree from Seoul National University.

Seminars

Yong Suk Lee

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Former SK Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
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PhD, MPP

Yong Suk Lee was the SK Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Deputy Director of the Korea Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. He served in these roles until June 2021.

Lee’s main fields of research are labor economics, technology and entrepreneurship, and urban economics. Some of the issues he has studied include technology and labor markets, entrepreneurship and economic growth, entrepreneurship education, and education and inequality. He is also interested in both the North and South Korean economy and has examined how economic sanctions affect economic activity in North Korea, and how management practices and education policy affect inequality in South Korea. His current research focuses on how the new wave of digital technologies, such as robotics and artificial intelligence affect labor, education, entrepreneurship, and productivity.

His research has been published in both economics and management journals including the Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Economic Geography, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Health Economics, and Labour Economics. Lee also regularly contributes to policy reports and opinion pieces on contemporary issues surrounding both North and South Korea.

Prior to joining Stanford, Lee was an assistant professor of economics at Williams College in Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University, a Master of Public Policy from Duke University, and a Bachelor's degree and master's degree in architecture from Seoul National University. Lee also worked as a real estate development consultant and architecture designer as he transitioned from architecture to economics.

While at APARC, Dr. Lee led and participated in several research projects, including Stanford-Asia Pacific Innovation; Digital Technologies and the Labor Market; Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Economic Development; The Impact of Robotics on Nursing Home Care in Japan; Education and Development in the Digital Economy; and New Media and Political Economy.

Former Deputy Director of the Korea Program at Shorenstein APARC

Myths and Realities of an Aging Society

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John W. (Jack) Rowe MD, an expert on health care economics and healthy aging, will be the inaugural speaker for the Stanford Center on Longevity Distinguished Lecture Series. Rowe is professor of health policy and management, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and former CEO of Aetna Inc.

Rowe’s lecture, “Myths and Realities of an Aging Society,” will be from 6 to 7 p.m. (reception at 5:30 p.m.), Tuesday, April 13.

Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center

John (Jack) W. Rowe

Columbia University, MSPH
Dept. of Health Policy & Mgmt.
600 West 168th Street, 6th Fl.
New York, NY 10032

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Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Joseph Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
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MD

Dr. John Rowe is the Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.  Previously, from 2000 until his retirement in late 2006, Dr. Rowe served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc., one of the nation's leading health care and related benefits organizations.  Before his tenure at Aetna, from 1998 to 2000, Dr. Rowe served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health, one of the nation’s largest academic health care organizations. From 1988 to 1998, prior to the Mount Sinai-NYU Health merger, Dr. Rowe was President of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Before joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Rowe was a Professor of Medicine and the founding Director of the Division on Aging at the Harvard Medical School, as well as Chief of Gerontology at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital.  He was Director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Aging and is co-author, with Robert Kahn, Ph.D., of Successful Aging (Pantheon, 1998). Currently, Dr. Rowe leads the MacArthur Foundation’s Network on An Aging Society .

Dr. Rowe was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He  serves on the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation and is Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and the Board of Overseers of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. He is Chair of the Advisory Council of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity, and  was a founding Commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission ( Medpac) and Chair of the board of Trustees of the University of Connecticut. 

Adjunct Affiliate at the Center for Health Policy and the Department of Health Policy
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Lectures

Age related changes in the brain systems underlying intertemporal choice

Despite the fact that physical health and cognitive abilities decline with age, emotion regulation remains stable or improves across the adult lifespan. The consequence of these changes for decision-making is complex and likely varies with choice domain. Here, we investigate this interaction in the domain of intertemporal choice: a broad range of everyday decisions (e.g. healthy eating, retirement savings, exercise) that require trade-offs between immediate satisfaction and long-term wellbeing.

Meeting the Health-care Needs of the Rural Elderly: The Unique Role of Village Doctors

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Despite their recent deterioration, village clinics have historically been an important source of health care for the poor and elderly in rural China. In this paper, we examine the current role of village clinics, the patients who use them and some of the services they provide. We focus specifically on the role of village clinics in meeting the health-care needs of the rural poor and elderly. We find that although clinics are continuing to decline financially, they remain a source of care for the rural elderly and poor. We estimate that the elderly are 10–15 percent more likely than young individuals to seek care at a clinic. We show that clinics provide many unique services to support the rural elderly (and the elderly poor), such asin-home patient care, the option for patients to pay on credit, and free and discounted services.

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China & World Economy
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Kimberly Singer Babiarz
Hongmei Yi
Renfu Luo
Kim Babiarz
Kim Singer Babiarz
Hongmei Yi
Renfu Luo

Elder-care, Gender, and Son Preference: The Role of Cultural Transmission and Diffusion During the Process of Rural-urban Migration in China

A research report, “A survey of rural-urban migrants in Shenzhen, China”, based on findings from this project, was submitted to the Shenzhen government in December of 2005.  Since then, the Santa Fe Institute International Program, the Ministry of Education of China and the Treasury Department of China funded further research.  Dr.

Migration, Poverty Alleviation and Wellbeing of the Elderly: Population Modeling for Rural Western China

The researchers developed models for the time course of the economic demography of remote Chinese villages that takes into account the migration, and sometimes return, of the villagers, the predicted remittances, the costs for maintenance of those remaining in the villages (mainly parents and children of the migrants), and the marriage squeeze on males, which is very pronounced in remote rural China. They constructed formal mathematical models that include the above-mentioned features, as well as the rate of migration (which is available from our data).

Combining Measures of Senescence with Genomic Data for Isolated African Populations.

 This seed grant aimed to verify the ages of elderly individuals in a sample of Khomani San “Bushmen” from South Africa. With verified data, the researchers then aim to identify genetic loci associated with longevity in their sample. In November 2011, the researchers returned to South Africa and conducted follow-up interviews with 60 subjects; additionally they were able to enroll 41 new subjects in the study for a total of 101 subjects. They confirmed that half of their sample exceeded 50 years of age (up to age 98).

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