The Impact of Demographic Change on Human Capital Accumulation

Michael Fertig, Christoph Schmidt and Mathias Sinning ()

No 4180, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper investigates whether and to what extent demographic change has an impact on human capital accumulation. The effect of the relative cohort size on educational attainment of young adults in Germany is analyzed utilizing data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for West-German individuals of the birth cohorts 1966 to 1986. These are the cohorts which entered the labor market since the 1980's. Particular attention is paid to the effect of changes in labor market conditions, which constitute an important channel through which demographic change may affect human capital accumulation. Our findings suggest that the variables measuring demographic change exert a considerable though heterogeneous impact on the human capital accumulation of young Germans. Changing labor market conditions during the 1980's and 1990's exhibit a sizeable impact on both the highest schooling and the highest professional degree obtained by younger cohorts.

Keywords: demographic change; vocational training; schooling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C25 J11 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2009-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published - published in: Labour Economics, 2009 (6), 16, 659-668

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Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of demographic change on human capital accumulation (2009)
Working Paper: The Impact of Demographic Change on Human Capital Accumulation (2009)
Working Paper: The Impact of Demographic Change on Human Capital Accumulation (2009)
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