Macroeconomic impacts of changes in life expectancy and fertility
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Miles, David
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This paper analyses economic implications of the different ways in which the population structure of countries becomes older: longer lives and declines in fertility both generate ageing populations but have very different impacts upon the aggregate population. If lower fertility persists populations in many countries will decline. Having reviewed the evidence for this, I consider both why fertility rates have fallen and may stay low. I then analyse the economic implications of populations that may stop growing and start to fall, focusing on how this may play out in the UK. I consider policy implications of such a demographic shift. Despite many predictions of the dire consequences of falling populations the economic impacts are likely, on balance, to be positive.
Date Issued
2023-02-01
Date Acceptance
2022-11-07
Citation
Journal of the Economics of Ageing, 2023, 24
ISSN
2212-828X
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Journal of the Economics of Ageing
Volume
24
Copyright Statement
Crown Copyright © 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2022-11-14