CAPITAL- AND LABOR-SAVING TECHNICAL CHANGE IN AN AGING ECONOMY

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Irmen, Andreas
• 署名单位: University of Luxembourg; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut
• 刊物名称: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0020-6598
• DOI: 10.1111/iere.12216
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 261-285
• 关键词: unintended pregnancy; UNITED-STATES; fertility; consumption; insurance; Abortion; child

摘要

Does population aging and the associated increase in the old-age dependency ratio affect economic growth? The answer is given in a novel analytical framework that allows for population aging to affect endogenous capital- and labor-saving technical change. In a steady state capital-saving technical progress vanishes, and the economy's growth rate of per-capita variables reflects only labor-saving technical change. The mere possibility of capital-saving technical change is shown to imply that the economy's steady-state growth rate becomes independent of its age structure: Neither a higher life expectancy nor a decline in fertility affects economic growth in the long run.