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The aggregate implications of changes in the labour force composition

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  • Mennuni, Alessandro

Abstract

Labour composition by gender, age, and education has undergone dramatic changes over the last half century in the United States. Furthermore, the volatility of total market hours differs systematically between genders, age, and education groups. I develop a large scale business cycle model where these demographic patterns and their transitional dynamics are taken into account and find that demographic change accounts for 30% of the observed changes in aggregate volatility over this period of time. Additionally, these demographic changes are responsible for a significant fraction of the GDP growth observed in the considered period of time.

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  • Mennuni, Alessandro, 2019. "The aggregate implications of changes in the labour force composition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 83-106.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:116:y:2019:i:c:p:83-106
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2019.03.007
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    2. Titan Alon & Matthias Doepke & Jane Olmstead-Rumsey, 2020. "This Time It's Different: The Role of Women's Employment in a Pandemic Recession," Working Papers 2020-057, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    3. Cullmann, Astrid & Stiel, Caroline, 2022. "Cost and productivity effects of demographic changes on local water service," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Kamal, Mustafa & Blacklow, Paul, 2021. "Attitudes to gender and personality in the Australian gender wage gap," Working Papers 2021-07, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Demographic transition; Business cycle; GDP growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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