The Impact of Global Aging on Labor, Product, and Capital Markets

摘要

The expected change in population age structure in virtually all industrialized countries—as well as in many developing countries—will lead to a substantially higher proportion of older people in the world. The aging process deeply affects future labor, financial, and commodity markets. On a macroeconomic level, labor is becoming relatively scarce in the aging countries while capital becomes relatively more abundant. This precipitates changes in the relative price of labor, will lead to higher capital intensity, and might generate large international flows of capital from the faster to the slower aging countries. On a microeconomic level, the changing age composition of the labor force might affect labor productivity. Consumption and savings patterns are likely to alter when the elderly become a larger proportion of consumers and savers, with widespread implications for capital and goods markets.