OECD國家因應人口老化之財政政策試析

An Analysis of OECD Fiscal Policies in the Context of Population Ageing

OECD國家隨著生育率降低及平均壽命延長，已面臨日趨嚴重的人口老化問題。各國為因應高齡化對財政狀況的衝擊，已提出財政面向的因應策略。鑒於租稅負擔的平均水準已屬偏高，絕大多數OECD國家並不考慮以加稅的方式支應人口老化遞增的支出需求，其財政政策的重心係以縮減人口老化相關支出，包括老年年金、醫療照護支出及提前退休方案等為主，透過現行社會安全制度的改革以限縮支出，遏止財政赤字惡化及債務累積，邁向財政永續的正軌。

With fertility rates falling and average life expectancy lengthening, OECD countries have been facing increasingly severe problems of population aging, and have already come up with various fiscal policy initiatives to cope with the resulting impact on their public finances. Given the already high average level of their tax burden, most OECD countries are not considering increasing taxes as a means of meeting the escalating spending needs arising from population aging. Instead, they are focusing on cutting old-agerelated expenditures. Through social security reform and expenditure cuts in such areas as old-age pensions, health care, and earlyretirement schemes, they are endeavoring to avoid the worsening of fiscal deficits and the accumulation of public debt, to set themselves on course for fiscal sustainability.