Wages: The Baby Boomer Effect

Teresa GhilarducciMichael PapadopoulosSiavash Radpour
Written By SCEPA

WORKING PAPER

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Do policies to keep older people working cause wage stagnation?

The authors estimate the degree of complementarities between workers grouped by age and sex. An increase in the relative labor supply of older men is associated with lower wages for young women and an increase in the relative labor supply of older women is associated with lower wages for young and prime-aged men. The results imply that policies aimed to encourage older people to stay and enter the labor market, such as increasing Social Security’s full retirement age or raising Medicare eligibility to age 70, may have broad labor market effects by causing wage stagnation.

SCEPA
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