Population aging and comparative advantage

Jie Cai () and Andrey Stoyanov

Journal of International Economics, 2016, vol. 102, issue C, 1-21

Abstract: In this paper we show that demographic differences between countries are a source of comparative advantage in international trade. Since many skills are age-dependent, population aging decreases the relative supply and increases the relative price of skills which depreciate with age. Thus, industries relying on skills in which younger workers are relatively more efficient will be more productive in countries with a younger labor force and less productive in countries with an older population. Building upon the neuroscience and economics literature, we construct industry-level measures of intensities in various age-dependent skills and show that population aging leads to specialization in industries which use age-appreciating skills intensively and erodes comparative advantage in industries for which age-depreciating skills are more important.

Keywords: Trade patterns; Comparative advantage; Population aging; Age-dependent cognitive skills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 F16 J11 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Population Aging and Comparative Advantage (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:inecon:v:102:y:2016:i:c:p:1-21

DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2016.04.006

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