Ageing Democracies: Grey Power and Economic Performance
Principal investigator: Dr Tim Vlandas
Funded by: British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship
Start date: 2024
End date: ongoing
Project outline
Nearly one in ten people in the world is now aged 65 and over. This project theorises and explores the political consequences of ageing for economic performance. As countries age, the political priorities of a growing share of the electorate shift, and elected governments are increasingly forced to prioritise certain policies at the expense of others, which in turn negatively affects economic growth. Quantitative methods on a wide range of datasets provides evidence for the political economy consequences of ageing.
First, I demonstrate the different policy preferences, economic priorities, and voting behaviour of elderly voters using several cross-national surveys. Second, I show that ageing changes government policy allocation across various domains, notably prioritising pensions instead of investments. Third, I argue that ageing has as a result undermined economic performance.
The findings of the project can be read in the World Politics journal and Oxford University Press.
- Vlandas (2026) The electoral politics of economic stagnation in ageing advanced capitalist democracies. World Politics, forthcoming.
- Vlandas (2026) Ageing Democracies, Stagnant Economies: How Grey Power Lowers Growth. Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
- Vlandas (2026) Age, retirement, and preferences for pro-growth policies: a formal model and panel data test. Working paper.
Previous contributions by Principal Investigator
- Vlandas, T. (2018). Grey power and the Economy: Aging and Inflation Across Advanced Economies. Comparative Political Studies, 51(4), 514-552.
- Vlandas, T. (2021) Ageing and the Economy: a Literature Review of Political and Policy Mechanisms. Political Research Exchange, 3(1): 1 - 23.
- Vlandas, T. (2023) From Gerontocracy to Gerontonomia: The Politics of Economic Stagnation in Ageing Democracies. Political Quarterly, 94: 452-461.
Project presentations
Kings College Business School, University of York, University of Antwerp, University of Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics, Conference of the Council of European Studies, IAST-OxPo Conference, Universite de Montreal, Duke University, Harvard University, European University Institute, Stockholm University, European Consortium of Political Research, Max Planck Online Workshop in Comparative Political Economy.
Media mentions of research
- Le Grand Continent, “La tenaille Trump : l'Europe face à un risque existentiel.”
- L'opinion, “La démocratie est-elle vraiment menacée par la gérontocratie?”
- The Economist, “Britain's Labour Party is backed by a pro-growth coalition.”
- Sunday Times, “Grey vote exacerbates age-old problem of affordable homes.”
- Financial Times, “Is the rich world stuck in an ‘upper income trap'?”
- The Guardian, “Britain's older electorate can live with low GDP. It's high inflation they abhor.”
- The Economist, “Blighty newsletter: Can electoral reform fix Britain's growth?”
- The Constitution Society, “Universal Suffrage? The low and unequal turnout and the case for compulsory voting.”
- Europinion, “Lowering the voting age is not enough: Britain needs mandatory voting to change.”
- Wonkhe, “Investing for the long term often loses out to pensioner power.”
- Economic Innovation Group, “The great Transfernation.”
- Reason magazine, “Can America Get Out of the Gerontocracy Trap?”
- Canadian National Observer, “Why an aging electorate may become a problem for democracy.”
- Le Devoir, “Le vote gris plombe-t-il la croissance économique?”
- Kathimerini, “Greece bracing for demographic shift as aging accelerates.”
- Le Grand Continent, “La tenaglia Trump: l'Europa di fronte a un rischio esistenziale”
- Comment is Freed, “Is low turnout undermining growth?”
- Wikipedia, “Ageing of Europe.”