The impact of demographic change on human capital accumulation

Michael Fertig; Christoph M. Schmidt; Mathias G. Sinning

doi:10.1016/j.labeco.2009.08.005

The impact of demographic change on human capital accumulation

Michael Fertig, Christoph M. Schmidt^*, Mathias G. Sinning

^*Corresponding author for this work

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11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper investigates whether and to what extent demographic change has an impact on human capital accumulation. The effect of the relative cohort size on educational attainment of young adults in Germany is analyzed utilizing data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for West-German individuals of the birth cohorts 1966 to 1986. These are the cohorts which entered the labor market since the 1980s. Particular attention is paid to the effect of changes in labor market conditions, which constitute an important channel through which demographic change may affect human capital accumulation. Our findings suggest that the variables measuring demographic change exert a considerable though heterogeneous impact on the human capital accumulation of young Germans. Changing labor market conditions during the 1980s and 1990s exhibit a sizeable impact on both the highest schooling and the highest professional degree obtained by younger cohorts.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	659-668
Number of pages	10
Journal	Labour Economics
Volume	16
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2009.08.005
Publication status	Published - Dec 2009

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10.1016/j.labeco.2009.08.005

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AB - This paper investigates whether and to what extent demographic change has an impact on human capital accumulation. The effect of the relative cohort size on educational attainment of young adults in Germany is analyzed utilizing data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for West-German individuals of the birth cohorts 1966 to 1986. These are the cohorts which entered the labor market since the 1980s. Particular attention is paid to the effect of changes in labor market conditions, which constitute an important channel through which demographic change may affect human capital accumulation. Our findings suggest that the variables measuring demographic change exert a considerable though heterogeneous impact on the human capital accumulation of young Germans. Changing labor market conditions during the 1980s and 1990s exhibit a sizeable impact on both the highest schooling and the highest professional degree obtained by younger cohorts.

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The impact of demographic change on human capital accumulation

Abstract

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