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Workforce Ageing And The Substitution Of Labour: The Role Of Supply And Demand Of Labour In Austria

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  • Alexia Prskawetz
  • Thomas Fent

Abstract

We study the sensitivity of projected economic productivity (output per worker) with respect to alternative projections of labour supply and alternative assumptions on the substitutability of workers at different ages. We show that in a pure labour economy assuming imperfect substitution of workers at different ages implies an increase in relative productivity during the next two decades. For a decreasing or hump‐shaped age‐specific productivity profile a negative tradeoff between an increasing labour force at older ages and aggregate productivity results. A decline in productivity can be attenuated by adjusting labour force participation rates to levels currently observed in Nordic countries.

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  • Alexia Prskawetz & Thomas Fent, 2007. "Workforce Ageing And The Substitution Of Labour: The Role Of Supply And Demand Of Labour In Austria," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 95-126, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:metroe:v:58:y:2007:i:1:p:95-126
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-999X.2007.00262.x
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    Cited by:

    1. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6144 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Frosch, Katharina & Göbel, Christian & Zwick, Thomas, 2011. "Separating wheat and chaff: age-specific staffing strategies and innovative performance at the firm level," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 44(4), pages 321-338.
    3. Vogel, Edgar & Ludwig, Alexander & Börsch-Supan, Axel, 2017. "Aging and pension reform: extending the retirement age and human capital formation," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 81-107, January.
    4. Mahlberg, Bernhard & Freund, Inga & Crespo Cuaresma, Jesús & Prskawetz, Alexia, 2013. "Ageing, productivity and wages in Austria," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 5-15.
    5. Sandrine Levasseur, 2008. "Progrès technologique et employabilité des seniors," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(3), pages 155-184.
    6. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/6144 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9825 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Luciano Fanti & Mimmo Iannelli & Piero Manfredi, 2010. "Endogenous Age Structure in Descriptive Macroeconomic Growth Models: A General Framework and Some Steady State Analysis," Chapters, in: Neri Salvadori (ed.), Institutional and Social Dynamics of Growth and Distribution, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Alexandra M. Espinosa & Ignacio Díaz-Emparanza, 2023. "Assessing the Spanish immigration policy with frequency-wise causality in Hosoya’s sense," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 111-147, July.
    10. Frosch, Katharina & Göbel, Christian & Zwick, Thomas, 2011. "Separating wheat and chaff: age-specific staffing strategies and innovative performance at the firm level," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 44(4), pages 321-338.
    11. Vogel, Edgar, 2014. "Optimal level of government debt - matching wealth inequality and the fiscal sector," Working Paper Series 1665, European Central Bank.
    12. Vogel, Edgar, 2014. "Optimal Level of Government Debt: Matching Wealth Inequality and the Fiscal Sector," MEA discussion paper series 201410, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    13. Biehl, Kai & Fent, Thomas, 2007. "Vorausschätzungen für die Entwicklung der Gesamtbevölkerung und der Beschäftigung in Österreich bis 2035 [Projections of the Development of Population and Employment in Austria until 2035]," MPRA Paper 2877, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/6144 is not listed on IDEAS

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