Demographic changes and economic growth: impact and mechanisms

ABSTRACT Using panel data on 172 countries from 1960 to 2019, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of population aging on economic growth and explores the underlying mechanisms. We find that the aging of the population significantly reduces the economic growth rate: when the population over age 65 increases by 1 percentage point, the per capita economic growth rate decreases by 2.6 percentage points. We examine four channels through which population aging may affect economic growth and find that three channels play significant roles: capital accumulation, labor supply, and economic structure, while technological progress and human capital accumulation do not seem to be significant. We also find significant heterogeneity in the impact across countries at different income levels: the effects are statistically significant for middle-income and high-income countries, but not for low-income countries.