Implications of Population Aging for Economic Growth

David Bloom, David Canning and Günther Fink

PGDA Working Papers from Program on the Global Demography of Aging

Abstract: Between 2005 and 2050, the share of the population aged 60 and over is projected to increase in nearly every country in the world. Insofar as this shift will tend to lower both labor force participation and savings rates, it raises bona fide concerns about a future slowing of economic growth. These concerns apply to both developed and developing countries. An examination of past decades' data for OECD countries reveals that life expectancy has increased much faster than the legal age of retirement. Indications are similar in developing countries, which face the additional challenge of getting "old" before they get "rich". This paper analyses the implications of population aging for economic growth. Our main conclusion is that population aging poses challenges that are formidable, but not insurmountable.

Keywords: population aging; economic growth; economic policy; labor force participation; life expectancy; retirement age (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (46)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/pgda/WorkingPapers/2011/PGDA_WP_64.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/pgda/WorkingPapers/2011/PGDA_WP_64.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/pgda/WorkingPapers/2011/PGDA_WP_64.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> http://hsph.harvard.edu/research/global-demography-aging/ [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://hsph.harvard.edu/research/global-demography-aging/)

Related works:
Working Paper: Implications of Population Aging for Economic Growth (2011)
Journal Article: Implications of population ageing for economic growth (2010)
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:gdm:wpaper:6411

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in PGDA Working Papers from Program on the Global Demography of Aging
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Cinzia Smothers ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).