Reference : Automation, Growth, and Factor Shares in the Era of Population Aging |
Scientific congresses, symposiums and conference proceedings : Unpublished conference | |||
Business & economic sciences : Economic systems & public economics | |||
http://hdl.handle.net/10993/42042 | |||
Automation, Growth, and Factor Shares in the Era of Population Aging | |
English | |
Irmen, Andreas ![]() | |
2019 | |
No | |
International | |
Association for Public Economic Theory, International Meeting | |
June 2019 | |
Association for PUblic Economic Theory (APET) | |
Strasbourg | |
France | |
[en] Population Aging ; Automation ; Factor Shares ; Endogenous Labor Supply ; Endogenous Technical Change | |
[en] How does population aging affect factor shares and economic growth in times
of declining investment good prices and increasingly automated production processes? The present paper addresses this question in a new model of automation where competitive firms perform tasks to produce output. Tasks require labor and machines as inputs. New machines embody superior technological knowledge and substitute for labor in the performance of tasks. The incentive to automate is stronger when the expected wage is higher or when the price of an automation investment is lower. Automation is shown to i) boost the aggregate demand for labor if the incentives to automate are strong enough and ii) reduce the labor share. These predictions obtain even though automation is labor-augmenting in the economy’s reduced-form production function. In the short run, population aging weakens the incentives to automate and increases the labor share as individuals augment their labor supply. These implications may be neutralized if, at the same time, the price of investment goods declines. In the log-run, population aging and a lower price of investment goods are reinforcing. Both imply more automation, a lower labor share, and faster economic growth. | |
CREA | |
Inter Mobility Program of the FNR Luxembourg (“Competitive Growth Theory - CGT”) | |
Researchers | |
http://hdl.handle.net/10993/42042 |
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