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Does the growth process discriminate against older workers?

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  • Langot, François
  • Moreno-Galbis, Eva

Abstract

This paper seeks to gain insights on the relationship between growth and employment when considering heterogeneous agents in terms of their working horizon. Using an OECD database, our empirical estimations suggest that growth positively influences the employment rate of workers having a long working horizon (young workers) while negatively influences the employment rate of workers having a short working horizon (senior workers). We then provide theoretical foundations to this result by means of an endogenous job destruction framework à laMortensen and Pissarides (1998) where we introduce life cycle features. We show that, under the assumption of homogeneous productivity among workers, growth negatively affects the employment rate of workers having a short working horizon before retirement (senior workers) while it positively affects the employment rate of workers having a long working horizon (young workers). Numerical simulations confirm these results, however a non-standard calibration is required to reproduce the elasticity values obtained in our empirical estimations.

Suggested Citation

  • Langot, François & Moreno-Galbis, Eva, 2013. "Does the growth process discriminate against older workers?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 38(PB), pages 286-306.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jmacro:v:38:y:2013:i:pb:p:286-306
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2013.09.021
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    Cited by:

    1. Victoria Levin, 2015. "Promoting Active Aging in Russia," World Bank Publications - Reports 22613, The World Bank Group.
    2. Ochsen, Carsten, 2015. "The Ins and Outs of German Unemployment," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113223, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Eva Moreno-Galbis, 2010. "On the impact of the TFP growth on the employment rate: does training on-the-job matter?," TEPP Working Paper 2010-15, TEPP.
    4. Jean-Baptiste Michau, 2013. "Creative Destruction with On-the-Job Search," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(4), pages 691-707, October.
    5. Anders Stenberg & Xavier Luna & Olle Westerlund, 2012. "Can adult education delay retirement from the labour market?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 677-696, January.
    6. Zanin, Luca, 2014. "On Okun’s law in OECD countries: An analysis by age cohorts," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 243-248.
    7. Moreno-Galbis, Eva, 2012. "The impact of TFP growth on the unemployment rate: Does on-the-job training matter?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1692-1713.
    8. Laetitia Challe & Florent Fremigacci & François Langot & Yannick L'Horty & Loic Du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2015. "Access to employment with age and gender : results of a controlled experiment," Working Papers hal-01292137, HAL.
    9. Cheron, Arnaud & Khaskhoussi, Fouad & Khaskhoussi, Tarek & Langot, François, 2004. "Voluntary and involuntary retirement decision : does real wage rigidity affects the effectiveness of pension reforms ?," MPRA Paper 9119, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Pierre-Jean Messe & Eva Moreno-Galbis & François-Charles Wolf, 2014. "Retirement intentions in the presence of technological change: Theory and evidence from France," TEPP Working Paper 2014-04, TEPP.
    11. Fouad Khaskhoussi, 2009. "Job-Search Effort, Retirement Decision and Pension Reform: A Wage Bargaining Investigation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(2), pages 1255-1263.
    12. Maurizio Bussolo & Johannes Koettl & Emily Sinnott, 2015. "Golden Aging," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 22018, December.
    13. Karsten Wasiluk, 2014. "Technology Adoption and Demographic Change," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2014-05, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    TFP growth; Working horizon; Old workers’ employment rate; Capitalization; Creative destruction effect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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