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Ageing Workforce, Productivity and Labour costs of Belgian Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Vincent VANDENBERGHE

    (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES))

  • Fabio WALTENBERG

    (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) and Centro de Estudos sobre Desigualdade e Desenvolvimento (CEDE), Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Brazil)

Abstract

The Belgian population is ageing due to demographic changes, so does the workforce of firms active in the country. Such a trend is likely to remain for the foreseeable future. And it will be reinforced by the willingness of public authorities to expand employment among individuals aged 50 or more. But are employers willing to employ older workers? The answer depends to a large extent on the ratio between older workers’ productivity and their cost to employers. To address this question we tap into a unique firm-level panel data set to produce robust evidence on the causal effect of ageing on productivity and labour costs. Unobserved firm fixed-effects and short-term endogeneity of workforce age pose serious estimation challenges, which we try to cope with. Our results indicate a negative productivity differential for older workers ranging from 20 to 40% when compared with prime-age workers, and these productivity differentials are not compensated by lower relative labour costs. Furthermore, the (now dominant) service sector does not seem to offer working conditions that mitigate the negative age/productivity relationship. Finally, older workers in smaller firms (

Suggested Citation

  • Vincent VANDENBERGHE & Fabio WALTENBERG, 2010. "Ageing Workforce, Productivity and Labour costs of Belgian Firms," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2010003, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvir:2010003
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    File URL: http://sites.uclouvain.be/econ/DP/IRES/2010003.pdf
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Benoit Dostie, 2011. "Wages, Productivity and Aging," De Economist, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 139-158, June.
    2. N. Cordemans, 2018. "Low productivity growth," Economic Review, National Bank of Belgium, issue iv, pages 67-80, december.
    3. Muysken, Joan & Ziesemer, Thomas, 2011. "Immigration and growth in an ageing economy - version 2," MERIT Working Papers 2011-037, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    4. Nathalie Greenan & Pierre-Jean Messe, 2014. "Transmission of vocational skills at the end of career: horizon effect and technological or organisational change," Working Papers halshs-01143496, HAL.
    5. Mahlberg, Bernhard & Freund, Inga & Crespo Cuaresma, Jesús & Prskawetz, Alexia, 2013. "The age-productivity pattern: Do location and sector affiliation matter?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 1, pages 72-82.
    6. Christian Göbel & Thomas Zwick, 2012. "Age and Productivity: Sector Differences," De Economist, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 35-57, March.
    7. Alessandra Cataldi & Stephan Kampelmann & François Rycx, 2011. "Productivity-Wage Gaps Among Age Groups: Does the ICT Environment Matter?," De Economist, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 193-221, June.
    8. Vincent Vandenberghe, 2011. "Firm‐level Evidence on Gender Wage Discrimination in the Belgian Private Economy," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 25(3), pages 330-349, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ageing; Labour Productivity; Panel Data Analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • C52 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

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