Drivers of Labor Force Participation in Advanced Economies: Macro and Micro Evidence

Francesco Grigoli (), Zsoka Koczan and Petia Topalova

No 2018/150, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: Despite significant headwinds from population aging in most advanced economies (AEs), labor force participation rates show remarkably divergent trajectories both across countries and across different groups of workers. Participation increased sharply among prime-age women and, more recently, older workers, but fell among the young and prime-age men. This pa- per investigates the determinants of these trends using aggregate and individual-level data. We find that the bulk of the dramatic increase in the labor force attachment of prime-age women and older workers in the past three decades can be explained by changes in labor mar- ket policies and institutions, structural transformation, and gains in educational attainment. Technological advances such as automation, on the other hand, weighed on the labor supply of prime-age and older workers. In light of the dramatic demographic shifts expected in the coming decades in many AEs, our findings underscore the need to invest in education and training, reform the tax system, reduce early retirement incentives, improve the job-matching process, and help individuals combine family and work life in order to alleviate the pressures from aging on labor supply.

Keywords: WP; workforce; labor force participation; policies; technology; routinization; replacement ratio; DEMIG Policy database; employment outcome; retirement age; early retirement; random sample; panel regression; immigration policy; migration policy; industry employment ratio; older worker; activation policy; Aging; Labor force; Employment; Global; Europe; policy debate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40
Date: 2018-06-25
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=45977 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Drivers of Labor Force Participation in Advanced Economies: Macro and Micro Evidence (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2018/150

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().