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Population, Pensions, and Endogenous Economic Growth

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Author Info
Burkhard Heer () (Free University of Bolzano-Bozen, School of Economics and Management,)
Andreas Irmen () (University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics)

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Abstract

We study the effect of a declining labor force on the incentives to engage in labor-saving technical change and ask how this effect is influenced by institutional characteristics of the pension scheme. When labor is scarcer it becomes more expensive and innovation investments that increase labor productivity are more profitable. We incorporate this channel in a new dynamic general equilibrium model with endogenous economic growth and heterogeneous overlapping generations. We calibrate the model for the US economy. First, we establish that the net effect of a decline in population growth on the growth rate of per-capita magnitudes is positive and quantitatively significant. Second, we find that the pension system matters both for the growth performance and for individual welfare. Third, we show that the assessment of pension reform proposals may be different in an endogenous growth framework as opposed to the standard framework with exogenous growth.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 0479.

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Length: 44 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2008
Date of revision: Nov 2008
Handle: RePEc:awi:wpaper:0479

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Related research
Keywords: Growth; Demographic Transition; Capital Accumulation; Pension Reform;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
O41 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods and Programming - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models
O11 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
D91 - Microeconomics - - Intertemporal Choice and Growth - - - Intertemporal Consumer Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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