Are the old poor? A discussion and some cursory evidence

Many of us associate old-age and retirement with vulnerability, both physical and economical. Even though the position of the group of elderly as a whole has improved considerably and is now no less than that of younger cohorts , poverty among elderly remains an issue worth of analyzing, also since they have fewer possibilities to recover from a drop in income, for example by changing their labour market behaviour. This paper hopes to give cursory evidence on the poverty position of the elderly, while discussing some recent research.