Search Results
The End of Rapid Population Growth
The world’s population had been doubling every 47 years to reach 8 billion today. But it is expected to peak at 10.5 billion before declining by century’s end.
Working Paper
Population aging, labor demand, and the structure of wages
One consequence of demographic change is substantial shifts in the age distribution of the working-age population. As the baby boom generation ages, the usual historical pattern of a high ratio of younger workers relative to older workers has been replaced by a pattern of roughly equal percentages of workers of different ages. One might expect that the increasing relative supply of older workers would lower the wage premium paid for older, more experienced workers. This paper provides strong empirical support for this hypothesis. Econometric estimates imply that the size of one?s birth cohort ...
Journal Article
Opportunities within the disability housing market
With 14.2 percent of the population over the age of 5 having a disability,[1] finding viable housing options that are universally designed and constructed to be accessible for people with disabilities is an ongoing challenge in Texas. And promoting housing solutions and partnerships that can benefit this growing population has become critical, not just for Texas but for the entire country. Not only is the need enormous, but federal government resources that traditionally have funded housing for people with disabilities have evolved and retrenched in the wake of the financial crisis. As a ...
Journal Article
Family caregiver: balancing home and work
To meet the growing need for home health-care workers, policymakers will have to find ways to ensure that the jobs provide reasonable wages, good benefits, and a clear career path.
Report
Why New England’s Labor Force Participation Has Been Recovering So Slowly since the COVID-19 Pandemic
This report investigates a variety of factors that may explain why New England experienced a participation recovery gap from 2019 through 2023 and discusses the resulting policy implications.
Journal Article
Mother and child reunion
An intriguing look into why widows increasingly live alone
Report
Population aging, migration spillovers, and the decline in interstate migration
We investigate the role of the aging of the U.S. population in the decline in interstate migration since the mid-1980s. Using an instrumental variables strategy on cross-state data, we show that an aging workforce causes the migration rates of all age groups in a state to drop. This demonstrates that the effect of aging on migration includes indirect effects that go beyond the direct effect of raising the workforce share of groups with lower migration rates. We then develop an island model in which firms can hire workers either locally or from other locations, and show that an aging ...
Journal Article
Boomer retirement: headwinds for U.S. equity markets?
Historical data indicate a strong relationship between the age distribution of the U.S. population and stock market performance. A key demographic trend is the aging of the baby boom generation. As they reach retirement age, they are likely to shift from buying stocks to selling their equity holdings to finance retirement. Statistical models suggest that this shift could be a factor holding down equity valuations over the next two decades.
Journal Article
Can Population Aging Explain Rising Healthcare Spending Across Countries?
A low-income country spends about 5.3% of its output on healthcare, while a higher-income country spends closer to 7.5% of its output on healthcare.