Demographics and Productivity

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between workforce demographics and aggregate productivity. Changes in the age structure of the workforce are found to be significantly correlated with changes in aggregate productivity. Different demographic structures may be related to almost one-quarter of the persistent productivity gap between the OECD and low-income nations as well as part of the productivity divergence between 1960 and 1990. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.