This paper discusses research perspectives on older people’s economic exclusion in Europe as outlined within the EU COST Action CA1522 on Old-Age Social Exclusion (ROSEnet). Economic exclusion (EE) describes a process over the life course with comprehensive impact on ageing and old age. At the same time, older people’s EE is a state of marginalization in later life. As a process, it is linked to individual chances and decisions to participate in paid work, occupational activities and unpaid homework, work quality, consumption and life-styles, and retirement. EE has a basis in social class and origin, individual qualifications, changing education systems, and shifting labour markets, and it is inseparable from social policy regimes as well as from organisational policies and workplace practices. Thus, the concept is deeply rooted in economic approaches to the development of material wellbeing over the life-course and the capacity to address expected and unexpected changes in the level of material conditions and needs at different points in the life-course. Unlike traditional approaches to material wellbeing that tend to focus on the dimension of poverty and income, the concept of EE extends beyond financial aspects of material conditions to a broader perspective on individual lives. This presentation draws on international literature to shed light on the relationship between the standard economic concepts of material wellbeing and EE. The aim is to provide a knowledge synthesis of EE and its significance for individuals in later life and old age.