THE IMPACT OF GLOBAL AGING ON ASSET PRICES AND RETURNS

Numerous studies have tried to model the connection between the structure of population and the financial markets, showing the possibility of a future meltdown in the financial markets, via lower savings and investments given the reaching of the baby-boom cohorts at the age of retirement. In general the research has focused on the case of more industrialized countries, where the aging phenomenon is more felt in the present. The case of Central and Eastern European countries was somehow left aside, although the issue of aging should be an important one, considering also the current state of developing CEE capital markets. Our empirical work, based on the Romanian experience, suggests also that the demographic dynamics have had a detectable impact on the domestic stock market.