Population Aging, Human Capital Accumulation, and Productivity Growth

Prskawetz, A., Bloom, D.E., & Lutz, W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7975-8145 (2008). Population Aging, Human Capital Accumulation, and Productivity Growth. New York: Population Council. ISBN 978-0-87834-116-0

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Abstract

A major consequence of the persisting low birth rates and still-rising longevity experienced in many European and some Asian countries is an aging workforce. How serious a concern should this be for the course of economic growth? In particular, what effect does it have on labor productivity, as measured by output per worker? And what does the experience thus far in adapting to an older workforce suggest for future labor market and human capital policies in a fast-aging world? Economic theory provides no simple answers to these questions. Older workers tend to be more experienced and perhaps more competent managers; younger workers may be better educated, healthier, and more energetic and intellectually agile. Labor market institutions and practices may promote or impede substitutability among workers of differing ages. Indirect demographic effects on productivity also exist, working through capital and product markets, schooling quality, and the pace of innovation. Age-productivity profiles at the level of the individual, firm, and country can be markedly different.

The contributions to this volume help define the state of this difficult but important area of economic demography. The studies included cover the broad economic significance of global population aging; historical evidence of the effects of human capital accumulation; age variation in production and consumption; methods of population projection by educational attainment; sensitivity analysis of productivity projections with respect to modeling assumptions such as inter-age substitutability and form of production function; and country case studies of age-productivity relationships (Austria, Japan, Sweden). Empirical materials drawn on range from the individual to the macro-economy.

Item Type: Book
Research Programs: World Population (POP)
Bibliographic Reference: Population Council, New York, USA (2008)
Depositing User: IIASA Import
Date Deposited: 15 Jan 2016 08:41
Last Modified: 05 Aug 2023 05:00
URI: https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/8668

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