Understanding policy toolkits on employment and ageing: a proposal for a conceptual framework

Policy toolkits provide useful information and can be drawn upon as guidance in different stages of the policy-making process. This report is an initial review of existing policy toolkits on employment and ageing to distill a conceptual categorisation intended to inform research uptake strategies. The report starts by developing a clear definition of policy toolkits and
proposing a typology of policy tools that consists of four items: good practice,
social indicators, programme evaluation and simulation and forecast. We then describe the underlying relationship between research and policy-making, which is then used to provide a synthetic overview of toolkits available for ageing-related issues in the area of employment and pensions.
We conclude with the observation that policy goals are often quite
vague and that different policy goals may not always be congruent with each other or cannot be simultaneously achieved.