Population aging, government policy and the postwar Japanese economy

Keisuke Otsu and Katsuyuki Shibayama

Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 2022, vol. 64, issue C

Abstract: This paper analyzes the Postwar Japanese economy with a parsimonious neoclassical growth model that incorporates the demographic transition in Japan. We find that i) the increase in the aged population share can account for most of the decline in employment and reduced output by 8%, ii) workweek shortening policy led to a 20% reduction in output from its potential level by reducing hours worked over the 1988-1994 period, iii) the rise in labor tax led to an 11% reduction in output from its potential level by discouraging hours worked, iv) the shift in the composition of government spending may have caused a slowdown in productivity growth and hence a reduction in the potential output level itself.

Keywords: Population aging; Workweek shortening; Productivity growth; Neoclassical growth model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jjieco:v:64:y:2022:i:c:s0889158322000016

DOI: 10.1016/j.jjie.2022.101191

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