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Ageing workforce and firm growth in the context of “extreme” employment growth events

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  • Schimke, Antje

Abstract

In recent years demographic aging and its consequences have been recognised and discussed on macroeconomic levels, such as health care system, infrastructure, housing and labour market. However, the consequences are not only present on the macroeconomic level but also affect microeconomic issues such as a firm's growth and workforce. This exploratory study realises a microeconomic issue and investigates the linkage between aging workers and employment growth. More precisely, it aims to analyse the potential effect that age composition of a firm's workforce may have on a firm's employment growth. The study applies a linked employer–employee dataset of 2100 German firms, covering the time period from 2001 to 2006. We used quantile regression techniques to address the aging effect in the context of “extreme” employment growth events. The empirical investigation shows that, on average, employment growth slows down as the average age of the workforce increases.

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  • Schimke, Antje, 2014. "Ageing workforce and firm growth in the context of “extreme” employment growth events," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 86-100.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:30:y:2014:i:c:p:86-100
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2014.01.004
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    Cited by:

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    3. Backman, Mikaela & Karlsson, Charlie, 2020. "Age of managers and employees – Firm survival," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Workers aging; Workforce; “Extreme” employment growth events; Demographic trends; Age management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • L22 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Organization and Market Structure
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

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