IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/rdevec/v29y2025i4p2431-2448.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Population Aging and Corporate Innovation: A U‐Shaped Evidence From China

Author

Listed:
  • Jie Peng
  • Xiaodong Yang
  • Junyu Pan

Abstract

Population aging (PA) has raised a worldwide concern that it can inhibit corporate innovation because of the shock it imposes on the labor market. To address this concern, this study uses a sample containing data on population and industrial firms' patent in China over the period 2003–2014 to uncover the mystery of corporate innovation in the era of PA. The main findings are threefold: Firstly, the impact of PA on corporate innovation exhibits a U‐shaped pattern. There is evidence supporting the elimination of endogeneity by using the 1959–1961 China's Great Famine and family planning policy as the instrumental variables. Secondly, the U‐shaped impact of PA on corporate innovation can be mediated through mechanisms of rising labor costs, shocks to labor input in labor‐intensive industries, increasing R&D investment, and strengthening people's willingness to receive more education. A U‐shaped relationship is observed in nonresource‐based cities, industries with a lower share of SOEs, and industries with high market competition. These findings add new evidence of population‐economy linkages at the level of industrial firms, which can serve as a worldwide reference to cope with the transformation of the population age structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Jie Peng & Xiaodong Yang & Junyu Pan, 2025. "Population Aging and Corporate Innovation: A U‐Shaped Evidence From China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 2431-2448, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:29:y:2025:i:4:p:2431-2448
    DOI: 10.1111/rode.13229
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.13229
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/rode.13229?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:29:y:2025:i:4:p:2431-2448. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1363-6669 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.