How can promoting desirable elderly employment opportunities alleviate the shortfalls of Thailand’s ageing society?

This research article considers a simulated scenario in which there exists policy infrastructure that promotes employment options to support desirable life after retirement with fiscal sustainability. Two proposed “demo” policy tools, among many others, include (1) legislative flexibility in employment and (2) tax incentives for employers. These measures aim at encouraging employment structure with working conditions favorable for elderly workers. The results of the simulation imply that, given suitable working conditions, a minimum of 50% of the potential elderly workforce participating in the market can yield marginal annual income of approximately 44,268 - 165,295 Baht per elderly worker and approximately 4.74 - 9.35% GDP increase from the baseline GDP growth with ageing population structure. Moreover, the estimated possible minimum marginal net tax revenue is approximately 33,279- 65,994 million Baht. This marginal government revenue, if allocated to old-age expenditure, amounts to approximately 4,000 Baht per elderly per year. The proposed scenario with policy infrastructure that encourages elderly labor participation in the economy constitutes a self-funded model with fiscal sustainability and represents a win-win scenario. Nevertheless, the success of implementing such policy tools depends on the understanding, co-operation and synchronization among the Thai public institutions as well as all parts of the society.