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The age-productivity profile: long-run evidence from Italian regions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2024

Federico Barbiellini Amidei ,
Matteo Gomellini ,
Lorenzo Incoronato  and
Paolo Piselli Open the ORCID record for Paolo Piselli [Opens in a new window]
Federico Barbiellini Amidei
Affiliation:
Bank of Italy, Directorate General for Economics, Statistics and Research, Structural Economic Analysis Directorate – Economic History Division, Rome, Italy
Matteo Gomellini
Affiliation:
Bank of Italy, Directorate General for Economics, Statistics and Research, Structural Economic Analysis Directorate – Economic History Division, Rome, Italy
Lorenzo Incoronato
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Statistics, CSEF-University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy, CESifo, CReAM, RFBerlin
Paolo Piselli*
Affiliation:
Bank of Italy, Directorate General for Economics, Statistics and Research, Structural Economic Analysis Directorate – Economic History Division, Rome, Italy
*
Corresponding author: Paolo Piselli; Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of demographic shifts on labor productivity by leveraging variation in the age structure of Italian regions. These effects are analyzed along a first channel – the direct relation between population age and productivity – and a second channel capturing the productivity implications of a more or less dispersed age distribution. We propose an estimation framework that relates regional productivity to the entire age distribution of the working-age population and use instrumental variable techniques to address endogeneity issues. The estimates yield a hump-shaped age-productivity profile peaking between 35 and 40 years. We also document non-linear effects of regional age dispersion on productivity.

Keywords

productivitydemographyage distributionworking-age populationlong-runJ11J21N30
Type
Research Paper
Information
Journal of Demographic Economics , First View , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with Université catholique de Louvain

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