Aging Populations Need Not Mean Frailer Economies

Aging Populations Need Not Mean Frailer Economies Governments and economists have long viewed demographic aging as a threat to economic growth. But new research finds that labor scarcity encourages investment and shifts innovation toward labor-saving technologies, boosting productivity enough to offset a shrinking workforce. https://prosyn.org/kPuynt4 OXFORD—The global demographic transition, characterized by declining birth rates and rising life expectancy, has been one of the most consequential transformations of the past century, with population aging fueling a steady stream of gloomy economic forecasts. If academic economists, international organizations, and national governments agree on just one thing, it is that an aging society inevitably leads to economic sclerosis.