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Longevity and Lifetime Labor Supply: Evidence and Implications
Author(s) -
Hazan Moshe
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
econometrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 16.7
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1468-0262
pISSN - 0012-9682
DOI - 10.3982/ecta8107
Subject(s) - life expectancy , longevity , economics , human capital , investment (military) , expectancy theory , demographic economics , population , labour economics , demography , sociology , economic growth , political science , gerontology , medicine , management , politics , law
Conventional wisdom suggests that increased life expectancy had a key role in causing a rise in investment in human capital. I incorporate the retirement decision into a version of Ben‐Porath's (1967) model and find that a necessary condition for this causal relationship to hold is that increased life expectancy will also increase lifetime labor supply. I then show that this condition does not hold for American men born between 1840 and 1970 and for the American population born between 1890 and 1970. The data suggest similar patterns in Western Europe. I end by discussing the implications of my findings for the debate on the fundamental causes of long‐run growth.