burden of dependency

the non-economically active POPULATION of a country in relation to the employed and self-employed LABOUR FORCE. Dependants include very young, very old and disabled members of the community, their unpaid carers and the unemployed who must rely on the efforts of the labour force to provide them with goods and services. Countries with a proportionately large dependent population need to levy high taxes upon the labour force to finance the provision of TRANSFER PAYMENTS such as pensions, child benefit and unemployment benefit.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005

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transfer payments

References in periodicals archive ?

The chapters of Care Work provide many more examples of the negative impacts on specific groups resulting from most societies' continued insistence on placing "the burden of dependency squarely on the shoulders of families--and most notably the women within those families" (p.

With eighteen chapters and twenty-one contributors, Meyer has touched on many aspects and issues of care work in an attempt to explore the question of how best to locate the burden of dependency. Should families continue to bear the brunt, or are there more optimal market-based or entitlement funded alternatives?