1. UN Population Division. (2009) World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision. New York: UN Population Division.
2. It is impressing that the hypothetical continuation of the current fertility rates would lead to a population from 6.1 billion in 2000 to 12.8 billion in 2050, 43.6 billion in 2100, 244 billion in 2150 and 134 000 billion in 2300. Attention to a declining population was already given by Keynes, J.M. ((1937) Some economic consequences of a declining population. In: D. Moggridge (ed.) The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan).
3. Policy measures may include a higher retirement age, reducing older workers’ wage gains – so that older workers are no longer such more expensive than younger workers – and eliminating basic held views about the employment of older people. Recommended are policies directed at increasing employment opportunities for older workers by recontracting them in less prominent jobs with lower wage rates..
4. Jensen, S.E. and Jorgensen, O.H. (2009) Low fertility, labour supply and retirement in Europe. Sankt Gallen: University of St. Gallen. WDA−HSG discussion paper 2008/3) argue that in European countries a higher retirement age tends to decrease labour supply. This is exactly the opposite of what policy measures intend to make happen.
5. Note that, for example, immigration from Eastern European countries apart from brain drain is making the aging of the population in those countries even more serious.