Are Young and Old WorkersS Harmful for Firm Productivity ?

Thierry Lallemand and Francois Rycx ()

No 09-002.RS, Working Papers CEB from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Centre Emile Bernheim (CEB)

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of the workforce age structure on the productivity of large Belgian firms. More precisely, it examines different scenarios of changes in the proportion of young (16-29 years), middle-aged (30-49 years) and old (more than 49 years) workers and their expected effects on firm productivity. Using detailed matched employer-employee data, we find that a higher share of young (old) workers within firms is favourable (harmful) for firm value added per capita. Results also show that age structure effects on productivity are stronger in ICT than in non-ICT firms.

Keywords: Firm performance; Workforce age structure; Demographic changes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J31 L25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-bec, nep-eff, nep-hrm and nep-lab
Date: 2009-01
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http://www.solvay.edu/EN/Research/Bernheim/documents/wp09002.pdf First version, 2009 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Are Young and Old Workers Harmful for Firm Productivity? (2009)
Working Paper: Are young and old workers harmful for firm productivity? (2008)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sol:wpaper:09-002

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