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Can Education Compensate the Effect of Population Aging On Macroeconomic Performance?

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  • Kotschy, Rainer

    (LMU Munich)

  • Sunde, Uwe

    (LMU Munich)

Abstract

This paper investigates the consequences of population aging and of changes in the education composition of the population for macroeconomic performance. Estimation results from a theoretically founded empirical framework show that aging as well as the education composition of the population influence economic performance. The estimates and simulations based on population projections and different counterfactual scenarios show that population aging will have a substantial negative consequence for macroeconomic performance in many countries in the years to come. The results also suggest that education expansions tend to offset the negative effects, but that the extent to which they compensate the aging effects differs vastly across countries. The simulations illustrate the heterogeneity in the effects of population aging on economic performance across countries, depending on their current age and education composition. The estimates provide a method to quantify the increase in education that is required to offset the negative consequences of population aging. Counterfactual changes in labor force participation and productivity required to neutralize aging are found to be substantial.

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  • Kotschy, Rainer & Sunde, Uwe, 2018. "Can Education Compensate the Effect of Population Aging On Macroeconomic Performance?," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 121, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    • Handle: RePEc:rco:dpaper:121
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    Cited by:

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    2. Anthony Strittmatter & Uwe Sunde & Dainis Zegners, 2020. "Life cycle patterns of cognitive performance over the long run," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(44), pages 27255-27261, November.
    3. Mirela S. Cristea & Marilen G. Pirtea & Marta C. Suciu & Gratiela G. Noja & S.S. Askar, 2022. "Workforce Participation, Ageing, and Economic Welfare: New Empirical Evidence on Complex Patterns across the European Union," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2022, pages 1-13, January.
    4. Bloom, David E. & Canning, David & Kotschy, Rainer & Prettner, Klaus & Schünemann, Johannes, 2018. "Health and Economic Growth: Reconciling the Micro and Macro Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 11940, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Paula Prenzel & Simona Iammarino, 2021. "Labor Force Aging and the Composition of Regional Human Capital," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 97(2), pages 140-163, March.
    6. Kotschy, Rainer, 2021. "Health dynamics shape life-cycle incomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    7. Klaus Gründler & Niklas Potrafke, 2023. "Population Aging, Retirement, and Aggregate Productivity," CESifo Working Paper Series 10594, CESifo.
    8. Mirela Cristea & Graţiela Georgiana Noja & Cecilia-Nicoleta Jurcuţ & Constantin Ştefan Ponea & Elena Sorina Caragiani & Alin Viorel Istodor, 2021. "The Interplay between Public Health, Well-Being and Population Aging in Europe: An Advanced Structural Equation Modelling and Gaussian Network Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-20, February.
    9. Bloom, David E. & Kuhn, Michael & Prettner, Klaus, 2023. "Fertility in High-Income Countries: Trends, Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences," IZA Discussion Papers 16500, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    demographic change; demographic structure; distribution of skills; projections; education-aging-elasticity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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