The aging of the population is not the sole contributing factor in the decline in labor force participation since 2007, contrary to what some have suggested. The participation rate has declined for every age bracket below 54 years old. The effects of these declines can be seen in the figure below. For each age range, we have calculated … Continue reading
“China has reached a turning point where the demographic dividend will become a liability,” said Shuang Ding, China economist at Citi Continue reading
The so-called silver tsunami — the aging of the country’s population — will hit the aerospace industry especially hard. It received an influx of workers in the Apollo era, when the country’s space program was shooting for the moon and generating buzz. Cuts to that program in the mid- to late-1970s and 1980s, plus the … Continue reading
Official statistics showing an increase in Taiwan’s 65-and-over population indicate that the nation is on course to go from being an “aging society” to an “aged society” Continue reading
As the population grows older an increasing percentage of the workforce will be past age 60. Older workers are ordinarily thought to be less productive than younger ones, raising the question of whether an aging workforce will also be a less productive one. In new research funded by the Social Security Administration, I consider whether … Continue reading
Complaints about the graying of the population sometimes imply an inevitable loss of economic dynamism. But I know of no historical evidence that either the productivity or the creativity of a society is determined by the age structure of its population. The interaction between demographic and economic change is so much more complex than the … Continue reading