Ageing dynamics of a human-capital-specific population

Dimiter Philipov, Anne Goujon and Paola Di Giulio
Additional contact information
Dimiter Philipov: Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA, OeAW, University of Vienna)
Anne Goujon: Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA, OeAW, University of Vienna)
Paola Di Giulio: Vienna Institute of Demography (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Demographic Research, 2014, vol. 31, issue 44, 1311-1336

Abstract: Background: Research on how rising human capital affects the consequences of population ageing rarely considers the fact that the human capital of the elderly population is composed in a specific way that is shaped by their earlier schooling and work experience. For an elderly population of a fixed size and age-sex composition, this entails that the higher its human capital, the greater the total amount of public pensions to be paid. Objective: The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the link between human capital and retiree benefits and its effect on population ageing from a demographic viewpoint. Methods: We construct an old age dependency ratio (OADR), in which each person, whether in the numerator or the denominator, is assigned the number of units corresponding to his/her level of human capital. Based on data for Italy, we study the dynamics of this human-capital-specific OADR with the help of multistate population projections to 2107. Results: Our results show that under specific conditions a constant or moderately growing human capital may aggravate the consequences of population ageing rather than alleviate them. Conclusions: With those findings, the authors would like to stimulate the debate on the search for demographic and/or socio-economic solutions to the challenges posed by population ageing.

Keywords: aging; human capital; old-age dependency ratio; projections; educational attainment; pensions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol31/44/31-44.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:dem:demres:v:31:y:2014:i:44

DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2014.31.44

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Demographic Research from Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Editorial Office ().