Abstract
Robust evidence for increasing inequality in resources and health over the life course has compelled growing interest in processes of cumulative dis/advantage and their implications for the well-being of the older population in coming years. Across domains and cohorts, evidence indicates the sensitivity of cumulative dis/advantage to social change and policy choices, while also demonstrating the robustness of the cumulative advantage pattern and to the resilience of underlying processes tending to generate inequality over the life course. The symposium will expand our understanding of cumulative dis/advantage by presenting fresh research focusing especially on historical change in trajectories of inequality over the life course, comparing different cohorts with respect to a range of health and economic outcomes, and examining implications for their retirement prospects. We will review theoretical developments in this rapidly expanding area of gerontological interest. Empirical contributions will explore the economic trajectories and retirement prospects of the cohorts now in midlife and nearing retirement age (roughly, late boomers and the “baby bust” or “Generation X” cohorts), who will constitute the next generation of older people. Comparison of their trajectories to those of preceding cohorts highlights the interplay of increasing income inequality; changes in family structure; changing health behaviors; and evolving retirement income systems in shaping the increasingly unequal prospects likely to be experienced by the older population in coming years, both in economic and health domains.