Greater Life Expectancy Correlates with Greater Economic Productivity

This report is devoted to exploring the latter relationship. More specifically, based on previous theory and evidence, we develop a statistical method for assessing the extent to which differences in life expectancy explain cross country variation in productivity - measured in terms of GDP per hour worked, per worker, and per capita. We also explore two of the potential channels through which life expectancy might influence productivity - increased educational attainment and greater participation in the labour market. While our previous research focussed on possible reasons why different age dynamics might affect productivity differently, this report is focussed more exclusively on the role of life expectancy. According to the wider economic literature, there are many reasons why increased life expectancy might boost economic output. Healthier workers are likely to be more productive, while longer lives may result in greater incentives to invest in schooling. The latter point is worth emphasising - if parents only expect their child to live to 40, the expected lifelong returns to investing in their education is likely to be far lower than if they are expected to live to 80. We explore the relationship between life expectancy and various measures of productivity across OECD countries between the years 1970-2015. We use all three measures of GDP (per hour worked, per worker, and per capita) because population dynamics may impact the productivity of the workforce ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Of Interest Source Type: blogs