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“Silver Economy” in the Context of Sustainable Development Goals: Peculiarities of Russia

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“Silver Economy” in the Context of Sustainable Development Goals: Peculiarities of Russia Journal of Risk and Financial Management Article Conditions for the Growth of the “Silver Economy” in the Context of Sustainable Development Goals: Peculiarities of Russia Liudmila Reshetnikova 1,* , Natalia Boldyreva 1, Maria Perevalova 2, Svetlana Kalayda 3 and Zhanna Pisarenko 3 1 Department of Economics and Finance, University of Tyumen, 6, Volodarskogo Str., 625003 Tyumen, Russia; [email protected] 2 Department of Algebra and Mathematical Logic, University of Tyumen, 6, Volodarskogo Str., 625003 Tyumen, Russia; [email protected] 3 Department of Risk Management and Insurance, Saint-Petersburg State University, 7-9, Universitetskaya nab., 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia; [email protected] (S.K.); [email protected] (Z.P.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: A “silver economy” can drive economic growth. The key condition is effective demand, determined by the number of financially secure members of the elderly population. The aim of this study is to assess the conditions of the Russian “silver economy”, identify the constraints on its growth, and develop recommendations for their elimination to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. We applied multivariate statistical analysis methods. The absolute and structural numbers of elderly people in Russia were found to not differ much from those in the developed countries of Europe. Their financial support exhibits several important features. A state pension plays a key role Citation: Reshetnikova, Liudmila, in financing the needs of Russian pensioners. Income from labor occupies the second position. Asset- Natalia Boldyreva, Maria Perevalova, based reallocations are negligible. Public programs will improve the standard of living of current Svetlana Kalayda, and Zhanna Pisarenko. 2021. Conditions for the pensioners. For future pensioners, it is important to increase the income received from asset-based Growth of the “Silver Economy” in reallocations. Russian pensioners were found to have had a negative experience of participation the Context of Sustainable in the funded pension system. It is necessary to stimulate the voluntary participation of future Development Goals: Peculiarities of pensioners in the funded pension system and to change the regulation of the investment activities of Russia. Journal of Risk and Financial pension managers. In general, the formation of conditions favorable to the “silver economy” may Management 14: 401. https:// turn it into a driver of sustainable development in Russia. doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14090401 Keywords: sustainable development goals; “silver economy”; life cycle concept; financial resources; Academic Editor: Stefan Bojnec pension provision Received: 14 July 2021 Accepted: 3 August 2021 Published: 25 August 2021 1. Introduction Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral The Sustainable Development Goals include parallel efforts to boost economic growth with regard to jurisdictional claims in and make decisions on a range of education, health, social protection, and employment published maps and institutional affil- issues. Achieving Sustainable Development Goals also involves addressing the economic iations. and social issues that come with an aging population. The growth in the elderly population has produced one of the most significant transformations of society during the 21st century and represents a serious challenge on a global scale. Globally, the share of the population aged 65 years or over increased from 6% in 1990 to 9% in 2019. That proportion is projected to rise further to 16% in 2050, when it is expected that one in six people worldwide will be Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. aged 65 years or over (United Nations 2020a). This article is an open access article Since the last quarter of the 20th century, worldwide, including in Russia, population distributed under the terms and aging has been perceived primarily as a threat to the stability of pension systems and conditions of the Creative Commons healthcare systems, a brake on labor productivity and economic development, and a source Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// of a systemic crisis in states with a developed social policy. For this reason, researchers creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ are focusing on the economic and fiscal implications of aging. We are witnessing an 4.0/). exaggerated shift of reforms in Russia towards the search for opportunities to keep the J. Risk Financial Manag. 2021, 14, 401. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm14090401 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jrfm J. Risk Financial Manag. 2021, 14, 401 2 of 18 elderly in the labor market and sources of savings in the pension system and the healthcare system. Meanwhile, at the international level, there is growing recognition of the change in the stereotypical perception of older people in society from a “burden” to a social resource that opens up new opportunities in the spheres of consumption, lifestyle and quality of life, education, and economic, social, and political activity. These conclusions make it possible to move away from the narrow fiscal and “crisis” interpretation of aging to the perception of it as a source of new opportunities for socio-economic growth in general through the development of the “silver economy”. The concept of the “silver economy” emerged in connection with the aging population in western Europe. In the developed countries of Europe, the absolute and structural increase in the number of elderly people and their ability to pay led to the formation of demand for new products and services aimed at improving the quality of life in old age. In 2005, the term “silver economy” was used for the first time at the official level by the European Commission at a conference on the aging of the population in Germany. An unambiguous approach to and a clear definition of the term “silver economy” have yet to be developed, which indicates the complexity of this concept. Initially, it was associated with certain aspects of the “silver economy” that derived from the personal, often subjective, approach of the authors. Norbert Meiners gave an extensive list of definitions (Meiners 2014). His conclusions are based on a review of scientific articles published between 1964 and 2013. Andrzej Klimczuk’s definition of the economics of aging is worth noting (Klimczuk 2016). It is consistent with the definition of the economy of aging given in a study conducted by the Technopolis Group in partnership with Oxford Economics and commissioned by the European Commission to support the development of the “silver economy” in Europe (European Commission 2018). In these studies, the “silver economy” is seen as part of the overall economy that meets the needs and demands of older people. The “silver economy” is defined as the sum of all economic activity that caters to the needs of people aged 50 and over, including the products and services they buy directly and the further economic activity that these costs generate. In this study, we assessed the conditions under which the “silver economy” in Russia functions, identified the constraints on its growth, and developed recommendations for their elimination to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. We performed a number of tasks to achieve the research goal. We checked for the presence of demographic conditions for the “silver economy” in Russia, studied the income of the elderly population of Russia and the sources of this income, and evaluated Russian pensioners’ experience of participat- ing in voluntary and mandatory funded pension programs. This article is structured as follows. In Section2, we identify the conditions for the growth of the “silver economy” in Russia based on theoretical and empirical works. In Section3, we present our algorithm, methods of research, and sources of information and data and justify the time horizon of the study. We apply the research algorithm in Section4 and discuss the results in Section5. In Section6, we summarize the results of the study, give recommendations to policymakers for the development of the “silver economy” in Russia, and describe directions of future research on the “silver economy”. 2. Literature Review, Theoretical Basis, and Research Hypotheses In general, the “silver economy” is a complex phenomenon that encompasses many different but interrelated elements (in the areas of health, education, the labor market, and social services) that together can improve the quality of life and effectively integrate of older people into the economic activities. It is important to emphasize that the movement towards the development of the “silver economy” simultaneously presupposes, on the one hand, a fuller use of the potential of older people and an increase in their socio-economic contribution to society, and, on the other hand, an improvement in the quality of life in old age. The multidimensional nature of population aging leads to studies of socio-economic aspects: inequality in meeting the growing demand for long-term care depending on socio- J. Risk Financial Manag. 2021, 14, 401 3 of 18 economic status (Lera et al. 2021); the measurement of consumption of older people based on active and assisted living systems using information and communication technologies (Schneider et al. 2020); the special needs of older people leading active and healthy aging, including in an open public space for their social integration (Agost-Felip et al. 2021; Rampioni et al. 2021). The main subject of the “silver economy” is a “new old person”—an educated, healthy, economically and socially active,
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